[Dawn] Pakistani troops killed 18 militants in a fresh offensive on Tuesday against insurgents blamed for a wave of recent bombings in Peshawar.The paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) said the target of the latest offensive was Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam), a criminal home-grown group with ties to the Taliban that is stirring up trouble in the Khyber tribal district.
'Eighteen militants were killed and six others apprehended during the operation,' said the FC in a statement.
The operation was launched on intelligence information about Lashkar hideouts in Gurguri village, 12 kilometres northwest of Bara, the main town of Khyber which sits on the main Nato supply route into Afghanistan.
The district neighbours the northwestern city of Peshawar, increasingly on the frontline of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked bomb attacks and where seven suicide bombers have caused carnage in the last two weeks.
Gurguri was 'secured' and security forces recovered arms and ammunition as well as torture equipment, the statement said.
The operation, code named 'Khwakh ba desham' which means I Will See You in Pashto was launched at 6:00 am with paramilitary and army troops.
A local security official said at least three helicopter gunships also took part in the offensive and shelled militant hideouts.
Khyber is on the main land and supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where international forces are battling a Taliban insurgency.
But residents slammed the military operations as 'cruel,' underscoring the challenges facing Pakistan in waging effective counter-insurgency campaigns.
'It is a cruel operation. They are also targeting civilians, which will trigger hatred among the tribesmen,' Bara resident, Raoof Khan Afridi, told AFP by telephone.
'All markets are closed and curfew remains imposed,' he said, accusing FC men of opening fire at anyone who violated the curfew.
The army launched a similar offensive in Khyber last September after a suicide bomber killed 22 policemen at a border post.
Intelligence officials said Lashkar-e-Islam uses the area as a base to train its followers to attack security personnel.
'They have dug caves in the hills of Gurguri, which has been a no-go area for troops,' said an intelligence official in the area.
Further north, authorities imposed a curfew in Khar, the main town of tribal district Bajaur after deadly clashes with the Taliban, officials said.
'The crossfire continued for three hours. Six militants were killed in retaliatory fire,' Adalat Khan, a local government official, told AFP.
'Two civilians were also killed and four, including two women, wounded when a mortar shell landed inside a house,' Khan added.
Armed with rockets and heavy weapons, Taliban militants also attacked the Bajaur headquarters of the local tribal police, he said.
'Some 50 Taliban launched the attack. Troops retaliated, killing six militants,' said a security official based in Khar.