Islamabad -At least 26 people, most of them Taliban insurgents, were killed Saturday in airstrikes, artillery shelling and a shootout as Pakistani security forces fight Islamist militants in various areas of the country, officials said. Jet fighters and helicopter gunships pounded several militant positions in South Waziristan, a north-western tribal district that is a stronghold of Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
"The jets targeted a militant centre and a private jail run by Taliban in Makeen area and a seminary in Ladha area," said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Fifteen terrorists were killed and 13 more were injured."
Separately, artillery fire destroyed a mud compound in Azam Warsak area of South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, after militants fired three rockets on a nearby paramilitary base. Two suspected fighters with the Islamist extremist Taliban were killed and two more injured.
Pakistani military is carrying out heavy air and artillery raids in South Waziristan to soften the position before infantry troops move in for a decisive offensive against Mehsud.
The warlord has claimed responsibility for many of the dozens of suicide attacks that have killed thousands over the last two years in the country. He also has a five-million dollar US bounty on his head as a facilitator for the international terrorist network al-Qaeda.
Five more insurgents loyal to Mehsud were shot dead by the police in the southern port city of Karachi, where local politicians and security officials have repeatedly warned that Islamist militants fleeing the military offensives in north-western region are setting-up sanctuaries.
The gunfight broke out in the early hours of the day after the police raided an apartment on a tip-off that the militants were planning attacks in the city, deputy police chief Zafar Bukhari said.
"Our officers told the militants, who were 12 according to our information, to surrender but they opened fire. In retaliatory fire, five of them were killed," Bukhari said. "The rest managed to escape."
The law enforcers also recovered weapons and ammunition from the militant's hideout.
The military action in South Waziristan came as the government said its troops were nearing the end of an offensive against the Taliban in Swat and three adjoining districts of North Western Frontier Province (NWFP).
Two months of fighting has left around 1600 militants dead and many civilians displaced.
The skirmishes between security forces and rebels also continue in Khyber tribal district along ther Afghan border. A stray mortar shell hit a market and killed four people, including a child while seven were injured, Geo television reported. It was not clear who had fired the shell.
