KHAR: At least 12 militants including two suicide bombers were killed Thursday in separate incidents in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
In one incident Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships killed 10 rebels in a raid on militant hideouts in Mohmand tribal district.
“At least 10 militants were killed in an operation by security forces in Inzaree village,” Zakir Hussain Afridi, administration chief of neighbouring Bajaur tribal district, whose main town is Khar, told AFP.
“Ground troops fired mortars and helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts,” he added. Local security officials confirmed the strike and the militant death toll.
Pakistan has carried out several raids against Taliban militants hiding in Mohmand district.
Separately, a suicide bomber was shot dead and another blew himself up when intercepted by authorities outside Khar, Afridi and his deputy chief Mohammad Jamil said.
“The bombers were cornered in Saramain village, five kilometres (three miles) south of Khar but there were no injuries to anyone else after one of them was shot dead and another detonated his explosives,” Jamil said.
Pakistan's military first conducted operations in Bajaur in August 2008 and have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the militant threat there.
Bajaur is in the Pakistani tribal belt which the United States considers the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and among the most dangerous places on Earth.
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