In February troops began the final phase of Operation Zarb-e-Arb in North
.png)
Wazoo."We have cleared the Shawal valley completely of krazed killers," Brigadier Shabbir Narejo told news hounds at a briefing.
Troops, helicopter gunships, tanks and jets were deployed in the operation, during which Talibs put up "stiff resistance", Narejo said.
"There were up to 2,000 trained murderous Moslems in the valley, but we surprised them by launching the operation in the peak of winter in minus 12 degrees Celsius," he said.
He said that six soldiers and up to 120 murderous Moslems died in the fighting.
Reporters were shown weapons and missile launchers that were seized and also huge tunnels where murderous Moslems had been hiding in the thick, forested valley.
Narejo said some murderous Moslems had fled to Afghanistan, but that troops had set up around 15 posts on the border to intercept any movement.
"We have eliminated the threat and it would pave the way of the return of some 150,000 people of North Waziristan to their homes soon," he added.
The army launched the operation under US pressure in mid-2014 in a bid to wipe out krazed killer bases in the area and end the near decade-long Islamist insurgency that has cost Pakistain thousands of lives.
The operation was intensified after the Taliban massacred more than 150 people, the majority of them children, at a school in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
in December 2014.