24 militants killed in NWA airstrikes

MIRANSHAH: Twenty-four militants were reportedly killed in airstrikes by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jet fighters in the Dattakhel subdivision of North Waziristan Agency on Tuesday.

Security officials said the aircraft started bombing the suspected militant positions early in the day, destroying eight sanctuaries in the remote and mountainous Shawal Valley of the Dattakhel subdivision near the Afghan border.

The sources said that some of the sanctuaries established by the militants in Alwara, Khar Tangi and Maizar areas of Dattakhel were targeted by the airstrikes.Military officials said that militants evicted from their strongholds in Dattakhel had now taken refuge in the forested Shawal Valley.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) also issued a statement regarding the airstrikes and the casualties suffered by the militants in North Waziristan.Military sources said that most of North Waziristan had been cleared of the militants during the military operation Zarb-e-Azb. They said only a small mountainous portion of the tribal region in Shawal is now in the possession of militants and efforts were underway to secure it from them.

Our Parachinar correspondent adds: Security forces repulsed an attack on a border checkpost in the Kurram Agency and killed several militants, official sources said on TuesdayThe sources said that around 50 militants entered the Kurram Agency from the Paktia province of Afghanistan and stormed a checkpost in the Qeematay area with heavy weaponry.

They said the soldiers manning the post returned the fire and killed several attackers. The sources added that no soldier was killed or injured in the attack. The attackers escaped after the forces hit their positions with artillery, said an official.

Earlier on Monday, five persons, believed to be members of the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network, were killed when a US drone hit three mud-built houses in the Lower Kurram Agency near the Afghan border.

The sources said four other people were injured in the drone strike. They said the drone targeted three mud-houses early in the morning in the Shaheedano Dhand area of the Kurram Agency.

However, the government officials said that only one person was injured in the drone strike, adding the houses were empty when the attack took place.