PESHAWAR: At least 30 militants have perished as warplanes pound their hideouts on Tuesday in the South and North Waziristan, according to military officials, reported Express News.

Fighter jets have been bombing targets in the region since the government’s efforts to engage Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in peace negotiations broke down this month.

North Waziristan residents have been moving out of the troubled region, anticipating a full-scale military offensive. They are leaving their homes and villages behind to settle in more peaceful areas such as Bannu, Kohat and Peshawar.

“The death toll from the airstrikes has risen to 30,” a security official in Peshawar told AFP.

“The militants had captured a stretch between South Waziristan and North Waziristan and had established training centres where they were also preparing suicide bombers,” one official told Reuters.

“Fifteen were killed in South Waziristan side of the border, while 12 killed in North Waziristan,” the official said earlier today.

Express News has reported that the airstrikes mainly took place in Datta Khel and Shawal areas of North Waziristan where militant training facilities and compounds are said to be located.

It was impossible to verify how many civilians might have been killed or wounded in the attacks.

The early morning attack on hideouts in the North and South Waziristan tribal districts were the fourth in a series of airstrikes.

Previous bombings
On February 23, airstrikes were carried out in the remote Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency in which security forces killing at least 38 militants, including key commanders. Six hideouts were also destroyed, they had added.

Just a day earlier, on February 22, security forces had carried out shelling on militant hideouts in Thall sub-district of Hangu, killing at least nine insurgents.
On February 19, at least 30 suspected insurgents were killed and several others got injured as military jets and gunships had bombed their hideouts in the North Waziristan and Khyber agencies.

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