WANA/MIRAMSHAH: At least 21 people, both militants and civilians among them, were killed and several others injured during air strikes and retaliatory actions by security forces in the two Waziristans on Sunday and Monday.

According to locals, women and children were also among the dead and wounded.

Air force planes bombed suspected militant hideouts and training facilities in areas dominated by the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan.

Security forces secured a main supply route between Maulvi Khan Serai and Serwekai.

According to officials and locals, the planes shelled houses of Malik Mohammad Amir Khan and Kabir Khan Berki in Salay Rogha area and killed 11 suspected militants and injured five others.

Residents said that militants retrieved five wounded people from the rubbles of the destroyed compounds and shifted them to a private hospital. Sources said the militants had occupied the houses whose owners had moved other areas, along with their families.

Helicopter gunships also pounded suspected locations in Tor Wam, Tiarza, Bronda, Sararogha and other areas of the Mehsud tribe. Troops shelled militants’ positions in Spenkai Raghzai from their base in Jandola. The sources said that troops had entered Spenkai Raghzai, but could not take complete control of the area.

Militants fired three rockets at a base camp of security forces in Wana, the regional headquarters, on Sunday night, but no damage was reported.

Helicopter gunships also shelled a residential compound in Shinkai area of North Waziristan. Shinkai is a mountainous area adjacent to South Waziristan.

According to sources, 10 people, including two women, were killed when the house of a tribesman, Jalal Afghani, was bombed in North Waziristan.

Five militants were killed when Cobra helicopters pounded a suspected location near Miramshah.

A military convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device planted on a road near Kher Kamar. Three soldiers were wounded. The convoy was going to Datakhel from Miramshah. Jetfighters were called in for support which shelled the suspected place and killed five terrorists.

Four women and four men were injured when their house was hit by a rocket near Miramshah town on Sunday night.

According to the sources, 10 rockets were fired at the Touchi Scouts Fort.

Khalid Khan in Alpuri adds: A constable and a junior official of the revenue department were killed and three others injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a joint checkpost of police and army near Thakot bridge between Shangla and Battagram districts on Karakoram Highway on Monday.

Local people and officials said the explosion had damaged nearby shops and buildings.

Sources said the bomber’s target was the Thakot bridge, which linked Pakistan with China and served as an important supply line for security forces engaged in the operation against militants in Swat.

They said that security forces had taken control of the bridge two weeks before the operation and set up checkposts of army and police on both sides of the bridge.