Army presses its advantage: Two important North Waziristan villages cleared

Amry says it has cleared Boya and Degan villages. 4 militants killed in exchange of fire near Mirali.

The army pressed on its advantage in North Waziristan as it announced on Saturday that two important villages, Boya and Degan, had been cleared in North Waziristan.

According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release, the announcement came the same day Corps Commander Lt Gen Khalid Rabbani visited Mirali and the two villages.

The military said that Boya and Degan were known to have a large concentration of local and foreign fighters. The army is now consolidating its hold of Boya and Degan.

The army had previously cleared the main town in North Waziristan, Miramshah where a number of tunnels, IED factories, caches of weapons and explosives and the command centre for militants had been discovered.

Clearing Mirali

The army said it was conducting house-to-house searches in Mussaki, Hurmez and Mirali bazaar by an integrated group of forces to clear the area as it was clearing Mirali.

According to ISPR, fighters are still holed up inside Mirali and its surrounding areas. These fighters have taken to firing rockets, mortars, heavy machine guns and sniper at security forces in the area.

As these militants engaged security forces overnight, four militants were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire.

Moreover, 12 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were neutralised, while an IED making factory, huge cache of arms and ammunition and foreign currency were also recovered.

Meanwhile strangulation and targeting of militants and their hideouts in other areas of North Waziristan are continuing.

Relief Work

Distribution of relief items for internally displaced persons (IDPs) by the army continued in Bannu, DI Khan and Tank, with 133,002 packs of ration distributed so far.

The army said it has so far collected 1,639 tonnes of ration at 59 relief donations points established all over the country.

An army field medical hospital established at the Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital in Bannu has so far treated 29,101 patients.