Restive frontiers: 12 militants killed in Tirah air raids

Soldier killed in Kurram mine blast; 4 injured in Mohmand bomb attack.

HANGU/ GHALANAI/ JAMRUD: At least 12 suspected militants were killed and 15 wounded in fresh air strikes in the remote Tirah valley of Khyber Agency on Monday. Elsewhere in the restive tribal belt, a paramilitary soldier was killed in a landmine blast in Kurram Agency, while four members of a pro-government militia were wounded in a bomb attack in Mohmand Agency.

Warplanes targeted hideouts of militants in Tirah Valley of Jamrud tehsil Monday evening, a security official said. Twelve militants were killed and 15 wounded in the blitz, he added. “Five hideouts of militants were destroyed.”

The local administration also confirmed the air strikes. Independent sources added that fighter jets targeted suspected hideouts of militants in the areas of Tor Darra, Sra Waila, Sor Kas and Ochay Wanay. They said at least eight militants were killed and 15 injured in the air raids.

Meanwhile, a Frontier Corps soldier, Farooq, died when he inadvertently stepped on a landmine planted by suspected militants near a checkpoint in the Bezo Sar area of Lower Kurram. “Farooq was fetching water from a nearby spring when he stepped on the mine,” a security official said.



A subsequent search operation in the troubled region didn’t yield any arrest.

Over in Baizai subdivision of Mohmand Agency, members of a peace committee, including its chief, were wounded in a remotely detonated bomb attack.

A local administration official said suspected militants triggered the improvised explosive device planted by a roadside when a vehicle carrying Baizai peace committee chief Malik Sanober and three others drove past.

Malik Sanobar, his brother Hazrat Khan and two colleagues, Ismail and Hazrat Ali, were wounded. They were driven to the Agency Headquarters Hospital Ghalanai and later three of them were shifted to Peshawar for treatment of their critical wounds.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2015.