Pakistani airstrike kills 14 Taliban rebels
At least 36 suspected extremists and three soldiers were killed in military airstrikes and ground operations targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants in northwest Pakistan, officials said yesterday.
At least 14 militants were killed yesterday when Pakistani jets pounded suspected Taliban hide-outs in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan while 22 militants and three soldiers were killed in separate clashes, officials said.
Jets fired at the towns of Damadola, Harkai and Siprai in Bajaur district where Pakistani forces have clashed with Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants for the past three months, local administration official Jamil Khan told AFP.
"According to reports received here airstrikes have killed 14 militants and destroyed several underground bunkers and ammunition dumps used by them," local government official Mohammad Jamil told AFP.
Meanwhile, at least 22 militants and three soldiers were killed in clashes in northwest Pakistan, where the military is waging a fierce battle with Taliban-linked militants, officials said Sunday.
Fifteen militants and three soldiers were killed late Saturday in the scenic Swat valley during an ongoing army operation against fighters loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, a senior military official told AFP.
Pakistani helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in Matta and Kabal districts, both Fazlullah strongholds, the official added, on condition of anonymity.
The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination where many Pakistani city dwellers went for their annual holidays and featured Pakistan's only ski resort.
But it has since been turned into a battleground since Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for Islamic Sharia law.
Separately, soldiers killed seven militants and injured nine others in Mohmand tribal district, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, a paramilitary spokesman told AFP.
The gunfight in Mohmand erupted late Saturday when around 200 Taliban militants surrounded a checkpost near Karapa village and started firing rockets, he said.
"The security forces bravely repulsed the attack and killed seven militants and injured nine others while a paratrooper was also wounded in the clash.
"The security forces targeted the militants with artillery and mortar guns and forced them to flee from the scene," the spokesman said.
Separately, militants blew up a bridge on a key road in Mohmand, but the blast caused no casualties and the repair work had been started, he said.
Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and have since set up training camps.
al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri escaped a raid by an unmanned CIA plane in Damadola in January 2004, Pakistani officials have said.
Egyptian-born Zawahiri, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, is said to have secretly visited the area in the past, according to Pakistani security officials.
The Pakistani military said last month that around 1,500 rebels and 73 soldiers had died while hundreds more militants were captured since the military launched an operation in Bajaur in August.
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