MINGORA / WANA, Nov 14: Security forces killed six militants in Matta tehsil of Swat in the small hours of Sunday, officials said.

Later, security forces launched a search operation in Chuprial and adjacent areas of Matta.

(AP quoted military spokesman Maj Mushtaq as having said the clash took place after militants had attacked a checkpoint. The Pakistan Army launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in 2009 in Swat, a one-time tourist haven largely overrun by militants beginning in 2007. Though the months-long offensive was hailed as a success, militant activity is still reported in the picturesque region.)

In South Waziristan, the bodyguard of a peace committee chief was killed and nine others were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at Shakai vegetable market on Sunday, witnesses said.

Malik Tehsil Khan, chief of the peace committee, escaped unhurt.

Local people said that Malik Tehsil along with his guards was in the market when a man approached him. The guards got suspicious of his movement and wanted to frisk him, but the detonated the explosives wrapped to his body. One guard, Hamid Khan, was killed and nine others were injured. Three wounded men were shifted to Dera Ismail Khan for treatment.

The residents of Shakai had set up the peace committee to keep an eye on the activities of militants in their area. This was the second suicide attack in Ahmadzai Wazir area in three months. Maulana Noor Muhammad, a former member of parliament, was killed in the previous suicide attack inside a mosque in Wana weeks ago.

Meanwhile, a member of the bomb disposal squad, Nez Zada, was killed and another injured in a roadside bomb explosion in Safi tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Sunday.

Sajjad Mohmand, claiming to be spokesman for the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, said they had carried out the attack.