KHAR, Aug 11: Militants ended the siege of Khar, the headquarters of the Bajaur Agency, after air force planes and helicopters bombed their positions on Monday.

At least 20 militants and eight tribesmen were killed in clashes and bombardment which forced the Taliban to leave their positions in and around the town.

Witnesses said the militants had escaped from the area after jet fighters and Cobra helicopters attacked their positions in Toheedabad, Tang Khata, Shagu, Damadola, Sewai and Daber. Some residential areas also came under attack.

According to sources, the militants attacked a post and a camp of security forces in Toor Ghundai and Askandaru with heavy weapons.

Officials said 20 militants were killed and 25 others wounded in the clash, and local people reported seeing bodies lying along the road. Local people said four women were among the eight people killed in the air strikes. Some areas outside Khar were also attacked.

Dozens of houses were damaged in Tang Khata, Siddiqabad and Lowi Sam.

In Toheedabad, a man, his wife and mother died when a bomb hit their house. Four houses were damaged in the attack. Three people were killed in Damadola and two who had been injured in the attacks died in a hospital in Khar.

A resident of Lowi Sam told Dawn in Peshawar that the area where militants had kept over 150 soldiers under siege for three days was presenting the look of a battlefield littered with bodies.

“The air is filled with the stench of decaying bodies. There is an atmosphere of fear and nobody is around to collect the bodies,” he said.

Meanwhile, exodus continued from the conflict-hit areas and people moved towards Lower Dir, Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar and Mohmand. Bazaars, educational institutions and offices remained closed in the region.

The Awami National Party and Al Khidmat Foundation of the Jamaat-i-Islami have set up relief camps for displaced families in Monda, Jandol and Timergara in Lower Dir district. An official of the Fata branch of Pakistan Red Crescent Society said in Peshawar that the organisation was yet to make an assessment of the number of displaced people. He said a relief camp would be set up after collecting the data.

He said most of the displaced people had taken shelter with their relatives. Al Khidmat Foundation said food was being provided to over 20,000 people in its relief camps.

There were reports of thousands of people, including women and children, heading towards Lower Dir. The NWFP government has set up a relief camp in Jandol.

Our correspondent in Tank quoted intelligence sources as saying that an Al Qaeda leader had been killed in the operation.

A security official told Reuters that the forces had killed around 50 militants in fresh clashes, taking the death toll to nearly 160 in five days of fighting.