PESHAWAR: At least 40 terrorists, including unidentified foreign militants were killed and five militant hideouts destroyed in aerial strikes early on Wednesday in Datakhel tehsil of North Waziristan Agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
Fighter jets struck suspected terrorist hideouts in the Kiza Madakhel, Datakhel, Ezark areas of the Agency.
The ISPR said that terrorists hideouts and ammunition dumps were destroyed in the strikes targeting Nawae Killi and Zaram Asar villages situated in the north of Datakhel.
However, this information could not be independently verified as the access of media is restricted in the region.
The army has launched an all-out military operation named Zarb-i-Azb on June 15 against local and foreign militants in North Waziristan. Yesterday (Tuesday) saw at least 11 terrorists and three Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers killed when Pakistani security forces thwarted an attack by militants from across the border.
However, military jets yesterday also struck Khyber Agency — a tribal area to the north of NWA, bordering Peshawar city — killing at least 23 suspected militants, signalling as the military chief had earlier said a will to pursue terrorists in even the remotest areas. "All their sanctuaries will be taken out," Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had said last week.
Read more: North Waziristan operation — daunting challenge ahead
The Pakistan Air Force has spearheaded the campaign in Operation Zarb-i-Azb, pounding suspected militants’ hideouts in what until recently was the epicentre of terrorism in Pakistan as the military moved its infantry and mechanised forces to clear and hold a region where the state until June 15 enjoyed little to no authority.
Three months into the operation, the military says it has cleared more than 80pc of the territory in North Waziristan including its regional headquarters of Miramshah, its now ruined sub-district Mirali and a communication line spreading over 80 kilometres up to Dattakhel.
910 terrorists killed in Zarb-i-Azb
According to earlier ISPR press release, the official number of suspected terrorists killed in Operation Zarb-i-Azb has been put at 910 and that of Pakistani soldiers killed during the North Waziristan offensive at 82.
The army said it had carried out over 2,200 counter-terrorism actions across the country to prevent retaliatory action by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“Operation Zarb-i-Azb is progressing as per plan,” a military spokesman had said.
