ISLAMABAD: Pakistani fighter jets bombed a militant hideout in the restive northwestern Swat Valley yesterday, killing 40 Taleban militants, sources said, as the top US diplomat for South Asia visited the country for talks.
US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher met Pakistani officials after a series of US missile strikes into Pakistan’s tribal regions that have strained bilateral relations. Ties between the “war on terror” allies have also been tested by US Special Forces in Afghanistan launching a raid into Pakistan last month that killed several Pakistanis.
Boucher’s visit was for “routine talks planned in advance,” the US Embassy said without giving further details.
He met Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik on Saturday for “cordial and friendly” discussions, according to Pakistani officials, and was scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani today.
Boucher met President Asif Zardari yesterday, who told him terrorists both in Pakistan and Afghanistan were being funded by drug lords. Zardari said the drug-money in Afghanistan was being utilized for stoking terrorism in Pakistan and urged the US to take immediate notice of it.
In the latest clashes of Pakistan’s own military operations against militants, jets bombed a hideout in Swat, killing two rebel commanders and about 25 other men, officials said.
The two rebel leaders killed in the air strike were closely associated with pro-Taleban religious leader Maulana Fazlullah, a security official said, adding an ammunition dump at the hideout had exploded.
Also in Swat yesterday three militants and a soldier were killed in a Taleban attack on a security forces convoy, a separate security official said. In Bajaur district, which borders Afghanistan, a combined land and air assault killed at least 10 Al-Qaeda linked militants.
The casualties occurred in fighting which began late Saturday after militants fired at troop positions, a security official said. The United Nations refugee agency recently said almost 190,000 people had been displaced from the Bajaur region in recent fighting.
