Islamabad - Security forces in airstrikes killed 23 terrorists including foreigners in areas close to Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency and North Waziristan on Sunday.
According to ISPR, huge ammunition dumps blown up and hideouts of the terrorists were also destroyed in aerial strikes in Khyber Agency. The security forces are first time targeting the terrorists and their hideouts in areas close to Pak- Afghan border after successful gains in other parts of Fata in the ongoing Zar-e-Azb operation launched last year. Chief of Army staff General Raheel Shrif recently visited front formations in the Khyber Agency and spent first Ramazan with the officers and soldiers with the pledge to make Pakistan free of terrorism. The government under the National Action Plan (NAP) has also tasked the security forces to track down terrorist, their abettors and handlers in the urban areas across the country.
The attacks took place in areas close to the border with Afghanistan in Khyber and North Waziristan tribal districts.
The areas of Khyber Agency targeted by security forces include Rajgal, Pak Darra, Ghakhai and Kandaw of Tirah Valley in tehsil Bara.
The forces sources said the jet fighters pounded suspected hideouts of militants and scores of militant sanctuaries were also demolished in air offense. However due to remote areas and lack of communication contacts the casualties could not be confirmed.
After clearing the plane areas in Bara, the forces have launched Zarb-e-Azab and Khyber -Two operations in upper Tirah Valley and have claimed of clearing vast area. The troops will continue chasing militants till elimination of the last terrorist, forces official vowed.
Following clearing Bara, life is returning to normalcy there. Thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to their homes, educational institutions have started functioning and after remaining closed for seven years the silk factories are open now.
Khyber is a known stronghold for militants belonging to the Taliban and its Lashkar-e-Islam faction. The area is remote and off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to verify the army’s claims.
Meanwhile, one soldier was killed and three wounded when a checkpoint near the Shawal area of North Waziristan came under rocket attack on Sunday, security officials said, taking the Pakistani military’s death toll during the operation to 348.
US AIRSTRIKES TARGET MILITANTS IN EAST AFGHANISTAN
Reuters adds: US military airstrikes have targeted militants who were threatening international coalition forces near the border in eastern Afghanistan, a US forces spokesman said on Sunday.
Most foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan when NATO combat operations ended last year. Around 13,200 international troops are part of a new training mission, while a small contingent of US troops is separately fighting the Taliban and other militants. The first air strike took place on Friday in Nuristan, an eastern province next to Pakistan that is partially controlled by the Taliban.
Another strike followed in Paktika on Saturday, a stronghold of the Haqqani network and other groups allied with the Taliban.
A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan declined to say which troops were involved and the nature of the threat.
“I’ll generally say coalition forces for both,” Colonel Brian Tribus said.
Six militants were killed in the first air strike, according to an interior ministry report, which also indicated an al Qaeda operative had been killed in the second.
Most US forces withdrew from Afghanistan last year, leaving a small contingent of 9,800 troops to help train Afghan forces and conduct operations against the Taliban and other militants.
This includes around 3,000 US troops that operate outside the new, two-year NATO training mission. The activities of US special forces engaged in counter-terrorism operations have not been made public and little is known of their activities.
In the first fighting season since the official end of the NATO combat mission last year, the Taliban have made gains across the country and succeeded in overrunning 15 district headquarters, according to a senior Afghan security official.
Additionally, support for Islamic State, or Daesh as the group is known locally, has spread and the group is exapnding its contingent of foreign fighters and disenchanted Taliban militants.