MIRAMSHAH, Aug 19: Seven people, including three women and two children, were killed and eight others injured when helicopter gunships attacked suspected militant positions in three villages in North Waziristan Agency’s Mirali tehsil, local people said.

However, Inter-Services Public Relations director-general Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad claimed that 15 militants, most of them foreigners, were killed in the operation. Citing intelligence reports, he said two militant hideouts near Mirali were targeted by helicopters.

“Two women who were inside the compounds were also killed,” Gen Arshad said. He, however, denied that any other non-combatants had been killed in the early morning strike.

Eyewitnesses said intense shellings from four helicopters caused considerable damage in Eisuri, Hurmez and Khushali villages of Mirali. The Cobra helicopters started bombing and shelling at about 6am and the operation continued till 10am. Roads leading to the Mirali town were blocked and security forces laid siege to nearby villages.

Some people in Mirali told Dawn by telephone that three women, two children and two men had been killed and eight others, including women and children, injured in the strike. The injured were taken to a government hospital in the town.

A resident said the house of political tehsildar Shams Gul also came under attack, causing some casualty. Many houses were partially damaged. The Mirali bazaar remained closed.

Gen Arshad said nothing was known about the owners of the compounds, which were used to harbour foreign and local militants. He said militants had taken shelter in the compounds after attacking security forces on Saturday night.

Four soldiers were killed and three others injured in separate attacks on security forces in the troubled agency on Saturday night.

Our correspondent adds from Khar: A post of the Levies Force in Mamond tehsil’s Saiwai Azernao area was destroyed by a blast and a man was killed when the house of a tribal elder came under fire in Inayet Kali area of Bajaur Agency on Saturday night, officials said.

They said the bomb disposal squad defused another bomb. Political authorities arrested 18 people under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

Our Peshawar correspondent Zulfiqar Ali contributed to this report