GHALANAI 60 militants including several key local commanders, were killed in the ongoing Mohmand operation in the last 24 hours, according to a press release issued by the Frontier Corps headquarter in Peshawar late Tuesday night.

The gunbattle erupted late Monday after political administration started search operation to clear the areas of militants after over six hundred militants, most of them from Afghanistan, attacked a military camp and two check-posts in Mohmand in which six security personnel and over forty militants were killed.

The release said 38 miscreants were killed on Tuesday and 22 were killed on Monday, adding key militant commanders including Umar Khitab, Qari Mumtaz, Haroonur Rashid, Bilal, Yaqub Yar said, Yusuf and Hamza so far.

Three civilians - the owner of Memood Hotel and his two sons - were also killed in Danish Kol area, residents added.

The security forces advanced and secured the road from Darwazgai to Lakaro-Mamad Gatt, the release said, adding that suspected hideouts of militants in Habibzai and Mulakhel, strongholds of the Taliban, were destroyed.

The militants were also engaged in Kareer and Chingal villages decisively. There are obvious signs of weakness and desperation in the ranks and files of militants, both local and foreign, who are in the run, the press release said.

Twenty militants and three non-combatants were killed as security forces launched major offensive against militants in Mohmand tribal region on Tuesday.

Officials said the Frontier Corps and Mohmand Rifles, backed by jets, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery, pounded suspected militant hideouts in five villages of Lakaro and Pandyali tehsils, stronghold of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan Mohmand chapter.

More deaths are feared as fighting was tense and continued till late night. Twelve civilians were also injured in the air strike and artillery shelling.

So far over ninety vacant houses, scores of shops, three schools, a petrol pump and a basic health unit have been razed to grounds by the political administration along the main road for security reasons in tehsil Lakaro.

Local Taliban resisted the government move and engaged in skirmishes with the security forces by conducting attacks on them from their hideouts in the roadside villages and nearby mountains. The assault was focused on five villages from Darwazgai to Lakaro along the road side.

The local administration has tightened security in the area. The troops erected barricades on entry and exit points. All passing vehicles and suspected persons were being searched to avert any eventuality.

On the other hand mass exodus was witnessed from Pandyali and Ambar tehsils owing to the jet bombardment and helicopter shelling.

The search operation was launched after tribesmen failed to meet the political authorities` demand to surrender militants from Bajaur who had crossed into northern parts of Mohmand region.