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Pakistan airstrikes kill 15 militants in northwest

Pakistani warplanes fly past during the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad on March 23, 2015. (AFP photo)

Pakistani fighter jets have bombed positions of pro-Taliban militants in the country’s rugged northwestern tribal region close to the border with Afghanistan, killing at least 15 militants.

The Pakistani air force warplanes pounded the militant hideouts and ammunition depots in the Tirah valley area of Khyber tribal district on Wednesday.

"Fifteen militants were killed and eight injured in the attacks," media outlets quoted an unmanned military official as saying.

Two militant hideouts were completely destroyed, reports said.

Separately, Mian Saeed, a regional police official said that heavily-armed militants have shot dead at least three policemen in the suburbs of the northwestern city of Peshawar. The officers came under attack while in a security operation in the troubled region.

"Three policemen were killed and eight injured in the attack," Saeed said on Wednesday.

The latest attack against security forces followed a bombing in Khyber on Tuesday, where six people including four policemen were killed.

Earlier this week, an attack on the political agent office in Khyber’s Jamrud area left four people dead and dozens of others injured. 

The semi-autonomous tribal regions on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan have been a hideout for militant groups during the past years. The al-Qaeda and Taliban militants use the mountainous border area to launch attacks in both countries. 

Pakistani armed forces launched a massive operation against pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan in June 2014, after a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended Islamabad's faltering peace talks with the militants.

The army also started an offensive in Khyber in October 2014, carrying out air raids and using ground troops, artillery, and mortars.

The army says it has managed to kill 3,000 militants over the past months. 

According to the Pakistani Interior Ministry, more than 60,000 people have lost their lives by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.


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