War on terror
26 December 2014
US drones kill seven Islamist militants in Pakistan
amid offensive
Pakistan secures
prisons amid Taliban jailbreak threat - © Rahat Dar, EPA
Islamabad (dpa) - US
drones Friday killed seven Islamist militants in north-western Pakistan,
military and intelligence officials said, as Pakistan's security forces stepped
up an offensive against Taliban insurgents after a massacre of school children.
The unmanned aircraft targeted two compounds used by militants in separate strikes in the North Waziristan tribal district on the border with Afghanistan, said an intelligence official who asked not to be named.
The identity of dead militants could not be ascertained immediately, but the officials said some Uzbek fighters were among them.
It was the second time that drones have targeted militants in Pakistan since Taliban fighters killed 136 children at an army-run school in the north-western city of Peshawar on December 16.
In response, Pakistani security forces have killed nearly 200 insurgents in airstrikes and ground attacks in the lawless tribal regions on the border with Afghanistan.
Several dozen suspects allegedly having links with Islamist militants have been arrested in a countrywide crackdown, officials said.
Thirty-five men were arrested from a secret hospital in Peshawar where militants wounded in attacks on international forces in Afghanistan were being treated, police official Faisal Kamran said.
North Waziristan is the largest of several sanctuaries Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda still control in the lawless tribal region on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military has stepped up an offensive it launched in mid-June to regain territory from insurgents.
The unmanned aircraft targeted two compounds used by militants in separate strikes in the North Waziristan tribal district on the border with Afghanistan, said an intelligence official who asked not to be named.
The identity of dead militants could not be ascertained immediately, but the officials said some Uzbek fighters were among them.
It was the second time that drones have targeted militants in Pakistan since Taliban fighters killed 136 children at an army-run school in the north-western city of Peshawar on December 16.
In response, Pakistani security forces have killed nearly 200 insurgents in airstrikes and ground attacks in the lawless tribal regions on the border with Afghanistan.
Several dozen suspects allegedly having links with Islamist militants have been arrested in a countrywide crackdown, officials said.
Thirty-five men were arrested from a secret hospital in Peshawar where militants wounded in attacks on international forces in Afghanistan were being treated, police official Faisal Kamran said.
North Waziristan is the largest of several sanctuaries Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda still control in the lawless tribal region on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military has stepped up an offensive it launched in mid-June to regain territory from insurgents.
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