Blast, shelling in Tirah kill seven militants

BARA: Seven militants were killed and several others sustained injuries in a bomb blast and air strikes by jet fighters in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, official and local sources said on Friday.
The sources said three militants belonging to the banned Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed and several others injured when an explosion took place inside a militants bunker in the Sepah area of Tirah.
They added that the militants were busy retrieving the bodies and rescuing the injured from the bunker when the Pakistan Air Force jet fighters targeted it.Four more militants were killed and several others injured in the air strike, the sources said.
More than 100 militants have been killed and injured in the bombing, air strikes and clashes with security forces in Tirah since the December 16 attack on the Army Public School and College in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, unidentified people in the Kamarkhel area in Tirah torched the house of a retired soldier who had served as a Subedar Major, sources said.Our correspondent adds from Kalaya: Four soldiers and a clerk of the paramilitary Orakzai Scouts were killed and six others sustained injuries in a roadside blast and rocket attack on a mosque during the Friday prayers inside the Tehsil Headquarters at Kalaya, Orakzai Agency, official sources said.
The sources said the militants targeted a vehicle of security forces in the Bashak area in the lower parts of Orakzai Agency when the soldiers were on a routine patrol. Four soldiers were killed and two more sustained injuries in the blast. The wounded were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Kohat.
In another incident, the militants fired two rockets at a mosque inside the Tehsil Headquarters in Kalaya during the Friday prayers.As a result, a clerk of the Orakzai Scouts identified as Munawar Shah was killed and four other personnel were wounded.
The injured were identified as Naib Subedar Mehmood, Naib Subedar Azizur Rehman, Havaldar Zaman Shah and Sepoy Asif. Five soldiers were killed and several civilians sustained injuries when militants had fired rockets at the same mosque in the past.
Online adds from Gwadar: Three soldiers of the Frontier Corps (FC) were killed when their convoy faced a gun and rocket attack in a remote hilly area of Balochistan’s Gwadar district.According to media reports, a security convoy was on routine patrolling in the Santsar area, around 70 kilometres north of the Gwadar Port, when unknown miscreants, armed with rockets and sophisticated weapons, attacked the military vehicles.
Sources said three soldiers were killed while five others were wounded. The attackers managed to flee in the mountains.Soon after the attack, reports said, security forces arrived in the area to kick off a search operation in the mountainous area of the restive province.