PESHAWAR: Military aircraft pounded hideouts in North Waziristan and Khyber agencies on Saturday, killing 44 suspected militants, among them many foreigners, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

In a statement it said that precision strikes were carried out in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan and Tirah valley of the Khyber Agency.

Sixteen militants were killed in strikes on hideouts in the Dattakhel area, it said. Many foreigners were among the dead.

In air strikes carried out in Tirah valley by fighter jets and helicopter gunships, 28 suspected militants were killed and many others injured, the ISPR said.

A number of militant sanctuaries in Rajgul and Kando Gharebi areas of Kukikhel territory, under the control of Taliban since 2009, were destroyed in the strikes.

Security officials said that soldiers had taken control of Mehraban Kalay, Mailay Kalay, Thore Darra, Brekh Mamath, Zarmanza, Tangu, Khaisth and Dwa Thoe after forcing militants of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to flee the areas.

They said that security personnel were now engaged in ground fighting with men of the TTP, Lashkar-i-Islam (LI) and Jamaatul Ahrar in Shah Nao area, close to the Afghan border. 

They added that troops were now in effective control of the Sipah, Akkakhel and Kamarkhel areas which were under the control of LI for almost a decade.

The officials’ claims about the death of a large number of militants could not be verified from independent sources, however.

The security forces launched Zarb-i-Azb and Khyber-II military operations in the troubled tribal agencies last year.

Security officials said a noose had been tightened around terrorists and large swathes of territory in North Waziristan Agency and Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency had been cleared of the militants.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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