Pakistani security forces killed dozens of Taliban in a counter offensive in northwestern Orakzai region today after an attack on a security checkpost, officials said.
The militants attacked the checkpost in Shirin Darra, about 10km from the region's main town of Kalaya early in the morning, killing two soldiers.
"Initial reports suggest 35 to 40 militants have been killed," Khaista Rehman, a regional government official told Reuters. There was no independent confirmation.
Orakzai is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, strung out along the Afghan border.
Pakistani security forces have stepped up assaults in the northwest over the past year, largely clearing militants from the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and the South Waziristan and Bajaur regions on the Afghan border.
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks in Orakzai and the neighbouring Khyber region, where officials said militants who fled the earlier sweeps had taken refuge. Military officials said a large number of militants, including foreigners, are believed to have taken shelter in the remote Tirah Valley in Khyber.
Reuters