Kurram tribal district...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
had left 42 bully boy and eight soldiers dead.
There was no independent confirmation of the corpse count because journalists and aid workers do not have free access to the tribal region.
"We have cleared the Jawaki, Mantao and Sarkat areas of central Kurram during four days of operations in the region," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We have killed 42 Islamic fascisti and injured over 100. Eight soldiers have also been killed. Taliban are on the run and we are marching ahead," he said.
Another official said that at least 40 Islamic fascisti had been killed in Kurram, a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Mohammedans.
"At least 40 Islamic fascisti have been killed by the forces. Resistance by the Islamic fascisti against the military is very limited," said Shahab Ali Shah, a local government official.
He said that more than 500 families who decamped the fighting had registered with the government for shelter. Around 28,000 people are understood to have decamped the offensive, but most have sought accommodation with relatives.
Pakistain's seven tribal regions bordering Afghanistan are rife with a home-grown insurgency. Washington has called the region the most dangerous place on earth and the global headquarters of Al Qaeda.
In the tribal district of Khyber, local administration official Syed Ahmed Jan, a local administration official, said 10 people were killed in festivities between the Lashkar-i-Islam network and a pro-government militia.
Although Pakistain has fought home-grown Talibs across much of the tribal belt, it has withheld American pressure to move against the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Wazoo.