Pakistan’s military said yesterday it had killed 12 Taliban militants as government troops pressed a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
Some 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships launched a fierce air and ground offensive into the northwest region three weeks ago and the military has since claimed a series of successes.
It said troops on Friday penetrated into Makin, the hometown of slain Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud who was killed along with some of his family members in a missile strike fired by a US drone on Aug. 5.
Security forces were also consolidating their positions at Sararogha and its surrounding heights in the rugged mountainous region, the military’s media wing said in a statement.
“In last 24 hours, 12 terrorists have been killed, and five soldiers including two officers were injured,” the statement said.
The strategic town of Sararogha, was a former operational base of Mehsud.
DEAD TALIBAN
Pakistan, vowing to crush the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban in the region, said so far 458 Taliban fighters and 42 troops had been killed in the offensive.
South Waziristan has been dubbed by Washington as the most dangerous place in the world because of an abundance of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
The long-awaited assault on South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in the northwestern Swat valley.
The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people.
In related news, two teachers and a student were injured yesterday when suspected militants hurled a hand grenade at a girls’ school, police said.
The militants lobbed the grenade at a junior high school in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, senior police officer Khalid Manzoor said.
SPLINTERS
The grenade blew off the staff room’s roof and splinters hit two female teachers and an eight-year-old student, he said.
“The teachers had wounds to their heads but both are out of danger in the hospital,” Manzoor said, adding that the student had only minor injuries.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Grenade and bomb explosions and drive-by shootings are fairly frequent in impoverished Baluchistan, which is gripped by an insurgency.
Hundreds of people have died since Baluch rebels rose up against the central government in 2004, demanding autonomy and a greater share of the profits from the region’s natural resources.
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