LANDI KOTAL, July 25: Twenty decomposed bodies were found in a deserted place in Bara area of Khyber Agency on Thursday.

According to an official, the bodies found in Khawangi area of Akkakhel, where security personnel are carrying out a search operation after claiming to have flushed out militants from their hideouts last week, were decomposed beyond recognition and stank because they had been lying in a ravine for many days.

He said the deceased might be militants because security forces had carried out an operation in the locality a week ago.

The area, adjacent to Orakzai tribal region, is considered to be a bastion of some militant groups.

Security officials claimed to have killed 15 militants in an operation codenamed Khyber-2 on July 19 and 20 which had been launched after the death of two soldiers in an explosion in Akkakhel.

The official said some of the militants were killed in their hideouts in an ambush and the rest in an exchange of fire during the military operation.

Two soldiers were killed on the second day of the operation.

The bodies found in Khawangi were brought to the Levies centre at Shah Kas.