Five more militants killed in Orakzai shelling

HANGU: Five more militants were killed when gunship helicopters pounded their hideouts in the Orakzai Agency on the second consecutive day on Tuesday, official sources said.
The sources said that military’s gunship helicopters targeted the positions of militants in Kasha, Shakar Tangi, Safial Darra and other areas in central parts of the Orakzai Agency and Lala Sar mountain range, which also borders the Hangu district.
“Five militants were killed and two of their hideouts destroyed on the second day of the offensive,” an official source said.On Monday, security forces claimed killing 11 militants when fighter aircraft, assisted by ground forces and artillery, hit their hideouts in central parts of the militancy-stricken Orakzai tribal region.
Five women and a child were killed and 15 other persons, including three women and five children, suffered injuries when mortar shells hit houses.The tribesmen, who had accompanied the injured to hospitals in Hangu, claimed that most of the victims of the military offensive were civilians, particularly women and children.
They said all the roads had been blocked and they were unable to shift families to safer places.The tribesmen said they had not been informed before the action. They appealed to the government and security forces to reopen the roads and allow the tribesmen to move to safer places.An official of the political administration said that the people living in these areas had not been asked to vacate their homes.