Islamabad - At least 44 Islamist militants and nine other people, including six security personnel, were killed in overnight airstrikes and ground attacks in Pakistan's north-western region near Afghanistan, officials said on Friday. Pakistani jet aircraft and helicopter gunships targeted Taliban positions Thursday in Orakzai, a relatively peaceful district in the country's lawless tribal region littered with Taliban sanctuaries.
The raids flattened three houses used by the local militants as their centre in the Ferozkhel area, killing at least 18 insurgents, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
The houses were abandoned by the minority Sikh community earlier this year when the Islamist militants in Orakzai imposed a protection tax on non-Muslims.
Attack helicopters from the military also pounded Taliban hideouts in three other villages in the district. "Eleven militants were killed and several were wounded," the official said.
Separately, three civilian died when a truck was hit by a roadside bomb in the north-western town of Hangu, located close to Orakzai.
The truck was carrying food supplies for troops stationed in the neighbouring Kurram tribal district.
Elsewhere in the troubled region, four policemen were killed late Thursday when dozens of insurgents attacked a security checkpoint near Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal district on the Afghan border, another security official said.
The checkpoint was destroyed in the attack.
Hours later, militants ambushed security personnel in the Chinnar and Manoogi villages of Bajaur. Two troops were killed and five injured.
The government forces deployed in the area retaliated with fire from artirlary and helicopter gunships, killing more than a dozen "terrorists."
A major offensive in Bajaur last year left more than 1,500 militants dead.
The district was described as a hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, who plotted and launched deadly attacks on US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The United States has welcomed Pakistan's ongoing operations against the militants across the north-west, as it places the country at the centre of its strategy to turn the tide against the Afghan Taliban.
Pakistani forces have nearly concluded their two-month operation in the Swat valley and its neighbouring areas, though the retreating Taliban continue to offer resistance from their hideouts in pine-clad mountains.
A military statement said on Friday that the security forces killed three "terrorists" in various areas of Swat and destroyed seven tunnels and eight hideouts used by them. Twenty-six more militants were seized.
Pakistani troops are also gearing up for an offensive against top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and his network in South Waziristan district.
Mehsud, who carries a 5-million-US-dollar bounty on his head for being a key al-Qaeda facilitator, is blamed for a spate of terrorist attacks since 2007 which have killed more than 2,000 people, mostly civilians.
