Forty militants, including two senior Taliban commanders, were killed in air strikes on rebel hideouts by Pakistani forces in the country's troubled northwestern Swat valley.
ISLAMABAD: Forty militants, including two senior Taliban commanders, were killed in air strikes on rebel hideouts by Pakistani forces in the country's troubled northwestern Swat valley while a missile strike in the tribal belt claimed six lives on Saturday.
The air strikes by fighter jets were carried out late last night in the Peochar area of Swat in the North West Frontier Province following intelligence reports that local Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah was hiding in the area.
However, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said on Saturday that Fazlullah was safe.
An army spokesman in Swat told TV channels that up to 40 militants, including two senior commanders, died in the air strikes on Taliban positions.
The Taliban's command and communications structure and an ammunition depot were destroyed, he said.
Muslim Khan said Taliban commander Mufti Saeedur Rehman and local journalist Abdul Aziz Shaheen, who was abducted by the militants two days ago, were killed in the attacks.
Khan said the security forces targeted 15 locations in Matta sub-district of Swat. The militants killed a person as they suspected him of being a government informer. They also bombed the house of a local leader of the ruling Awami National Party late on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a missile strike on a compound in South Waziristan tribal agency killed six persons, including two Arabs, and injured two others.
The missile, which was apparently fired from Afghanistan, hit a compound in an area 15 km from Wana, a major town in South Waziristan.
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