PESHAWAR  - The security forces killed 17 militants and injured six others in air strikes conducted in Aka khel area of tehsil Bara, Khyber Agency, on Sunday. The warplanes pounded suspected hideouts of militants in Khurmatang area and destroyed seven of them.
 "These areas are known as strongholds of the militants from where they stage deadly attacks in Kohat and Peshawar," one official in Kohat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Another senior military official in the northwestern frontier city of Peshawar confirmed that air strikes had taken place "somewhere between Orakzai and Khyber".