NATO jets today bombed Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency, killing eight members of a banned outfit -- Amar Bil Maroof -- and injuring three, Dawn News reported. The channel said the NATO jets targeted hideouts of the banned outfit in the Moga area near Torkham. Amar Bil Maroof spokesman Munsif Afridi confirmed that those who had died were members of his group. He said that 10 Afghan soldiers had been killed in a gunbattle with his group at the Torkham border earlier in the day.
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The Pakistani military said last month that some 1,500 Taliban fighters and 73 soldiers had died and hundreds more militants been captured since the start of its operation in Bajaur in August. Suspected US missile strikes have also targeted militants in the border regions.
Several Taliban posts had been destroyed. NNI quoted officials as saying that more troops arrived in Bajaur on Sunday to intensify the offensive against the Taliban.
Separately, unidentified assailants fired two rockets at a security post in the Serai area -- four kilometres from Khar -- but there were no casualties.
Step up efforts: Meanwhile, locals said tribesmen had stepped up efforts for the restoration of peace in the Tribal Areas, with two separate jirgas of the Salarzai and Mamoond tribes called to make plans to flush out the Taliban. Also, the political administration has warned Afghan refugees to stay clear of the area, and notes have been distributed telling the locals not to shelter Afghan refugees.
Also in Swat, NNI reported that mortar shells fired by security forces killed six civilians. Police said the civilians were killed as security forces and the Taliban exchanged fire.
The mountainous Swat valley, which features Pakistan's only ski resort, was until last year a popular tourist destination where many Pakistani city dwellers went for their annual holidays. But it has been turned into a battleground since local cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to the Taliban, launched a violent campaign for the implementation of Shariat.
Separately, the Taliban set a television cable operator's office on fire in Sangota and torched two girls' schools in Kabal tehsil, AFP quoted police as saying.