Twenty-five militants killed in border region

PESHAWAR: Pakistan security forces backed by helicopters attacked Taliban positions in a volatile tribal region on the Afghan border on Thursday, killing at least 25 militants, a government official said.

Security forces targeted militant hideouts in several villages in Mohmand, one of the seven ethnic Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border.

"We had information that militants had fled to these areas and planning to attack security forces so we went after them," Mohmand administration official Amjad Ali Khan told Reuters by telephone.

On Tuesday the U.S. administration issued a report stating that Pakistan lacked a robust plan to defeat Taliban militants and its forces were struggling to hold areas cleared of the al Qaeda-linked fighters at great cost.

Pakistan has been fighting an insurgency by militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban who want to destablise the U.S. ally and impose Islamic rule. Militants have killed thousands of people in a campaign of bomb and suicide attacks in Pakistan in retaliation for government offensives against their bases on the Afghan border.

The United States, which plans to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July, wants Pakistan to subdue Taliban fighters that use havens in the rugged tribal areas to attack U.S.-led foreign forces over the border.