Six women among 19 killed in Pakistan clashes near Afghan border

May 29, 2010, 18:18 GMT

Islamabad - At least 19 people, mostly Taliban militants but also six civilians, died on Saturday in clashes between Islamist insurgents and troops in Pakistan's tribal region along Afghan border, security officials and media reports said.

The killings were the latest in the assaults that Pakistani forces are carrying out against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in rugged tribal region, an area the United States believes has turned into a major hub of global terrorism.

Major Fazalur Rehman, a spokesman of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said that fighter jets pounded militants' hideouts in Orakzai tribal district. But he did not give any casualty figures.

An intelligence official monitoring the security situation in Orakzai area said that at least 12 insurgents were killed and 16 wounded in the action.

'Our troops backed by jets and artillery successfully targeted and destroyed several hideouts of militants,' said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pakistani media have cited military officials claiming that more than 900 militants have died in the army assault in Orakzai that started in late March. Nineteen soldiers also died.

The death toll is difficult to independently verify as the area remains almost inaccessible to media and aid workers.

Separately, one soldier was dead and another wounded when dozens of militants attacked on the security check-point of Jatana in the neighboring South-Waziristan tribal region where government forces are fighting Taliban rebels.

In another incident in the same district, six women from the same family were killed and eight other people injured in Wana area when a mortar struck a house, Duniya news channel reported.

It was not clear whether Pakistani troops or Taliban had fired the mortar shell.