Pakistan army launches comprehensive operation in North Waziristan -...

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Pakistan's army said on Sunday it had launched a "comprehensive operation" against militants holed up in the tribal North Waziristan region, a week after a brazen insurgent attack on the country's busiest airport.

"Our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries," the army said in a statement.

This comes after Pakistani fighter jets pounded suspected Taliban hideouts in the tribal North Waziristan region and killed nearly 80 militants, the army said, in response to an audacious attack on the country's busiest airport a week ago.

The army said ethnic Uzbeks accounted for most of those killed in the latest air assault in a region which borders Afghanistan and is home to some of Pakistan's most feared militants and al Qaeda commanders.

It was not immediately known whether there were any civilian casualties. Journalists' movements are restricted in the ethnic Pashtun region where the army has imposed a curfew.

"Fighter jets targeted militant hideouts in the village of Dagan near the Pakistani-Afghan border," said one source in the regional capital of Miranshah.

"An important Uzbek commander, Abdul Rehman, has been killed in the air strike," he said, adding that Rehman was directly involved in masterminding the Karachi airport attack.

Military sources said a number of ethnic Uighur militants, who operate alongside Uzbeks and share a similar Turkic language with them, have also been killed.

The official account could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

China believes that Uighur separatists based in Pakistan's tribal areas are behind an insurgency against Han Chinese in its restive Xinjiang province, although their exact numbers in Pakistan are unknown.

REUTERS

Pakistan army launches "comprehensive operation" in North Waziristan