Pakistani air strikes on
Wednesday killed 34 militants in the country's lawless
northwest, near the mountainous border with Afghanistan,
security officials said, but residents put the toll at 20.
Fighter jets pounded positions in the Tirah Valley in the
Khyber region, west of the city of Peshawar, in "precise"
strikes", the military said in a statement.
"The local population had fled their homes and villages when
the operation was launched against the terrorists," an official
told Reuters.
Another security official said those killed belonged to the
outlawed militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and an allied
group, Lashkar-e-Islam.
"In precise aerial strikes in Tirah, Khyber Agency, 34
terrorists were killed today," the military said in a statement.
The Pakistani Taliban are allied with the Afghan militants
of the same name and share a similar jihadist ideology. But they
operate as a separate entity, focused on toppling the Pakistani
state and establishing strict Islamic rule in the nuclear-armed
nation.
In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the
killing in Peshawar on Wednesday of a district president of the
ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), headed by Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Taliban spokesman Muhammed Khurassani said the group had
targeted members of the small Awami National Party, the former
ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"Now PML-N is on our hit list and today's activity is our
start."
The security officials said there were strong indications
the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah, was in
the area at the time of the air strikes.
Tribal sources said 20 militants, among a group that had
taken refuge in the valley, were killed in the air strikes.
They said most residents of the area had already fled.
Abdur Rashid, one of those displaced by the fighting, said
he and other residents had left behind some family members to
look after their houses and livestock.
"My elder brother said he had seen militants shifting bodies
of the slain fighters to upper Tirah from Sandasa and nearby
villages," he said by telephone from the Landi Kotal subdivision
of Khyber.
"Local militants of Lashkar-e-Islam told them 20 people were
killed."
REUTERS