Pakistani jets pound militant hideouts, 40 killed (2nd Roundup)

May 16, 2010, 15:23 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani military jets on Sunday pounded Taliban positions in the tribal district of Orakzai, killing 40 rebels, security officials said.

The airstrikes came as the Islamist insurgents freed 50 people kidnapped a day earlier in the adjoining district of Kurram.

A senior military official in Orakzai said the jets targeted four rebel hideouts believed to be used to prepare for an attack on the security forces.

'All positions were engaged and destroyed effectively and our informers on the ground said that around 40 terrorists died in these actions and several more were injured,' said the official, who requested anonymity.

Major Fazal ur Rehman, a spokesman of paramilitary Frontier Corps that is spearheading the offensive on Taliban and al-Qaeda in the lawless tribal region, confirmed the attacks.

But he said the exact number of casualties was not ascertained yet.

Pakistani troops moved into Orakzai in March to quell the insurgency. The military claims that it has killed more than 700 militants, while losing 18 soldiers.

The figures cannot be verified independently since the access to the areas remains very limited for the journalists and aid workers.

Taliban militants on Sunday freed 50 of the 60 people abducted from the adjoining Kurram district by dozens of militants dressed as policemen, intelligence sources said. They said 10 people were still in militant's custody.

Khalid Omarzai, a senior government official in the nearby Kohat district, claimed that the militants were holding only seven people.

Omarzai said the rebels released the captives unconditionally without giving the total number of people abducted and those released.

The military is also conducting an operation against militants in Kurram district, which has been a scene of bloody clashes between Shiite and Sunni tribesmen as well as a rising Islamist insurgency.

Sunni tribesmen get support from Taliban, who belong to the same sect.