Three strikes on Tuesday night targeted Pakistani Taleban
militants in one of their strongholds in the Tirah Valley in the northwestern
Khyber region on the Afghan border.
"We have reports that 40 to 45 terrorists were
killed," a security official told Reuters. Taleban insurgents often deny
official death tolls of militants.
More airstrikes by helicopter gunships killed 17
militants and destroyed three of their hideouts on Wednesday in Khyber's
neighboring tribal region of Kurram, intelligence officials said.
There was no independent verification of the casualties
and militants often deny or dispute government figures.
Pakistani forces have stepped up air strikes in Khyber
and adjoining Pashtun tribal lands in recent months against activists who fled
military offensives in the Taliban strongholds of Swat and South Waziristan
bordering Afghanistan last year.
Air strikes could undermine efforts to win over civilians
for the fight against the Taleban.
"Some of the families were living in the vicinity of
these hideouts and they were also among the dead," said the security
official of the attacks in Khyber.
Rehan Khattak, a government official in Khyber, said six
civilians, including women and children, were killed in one of the strikes and
they had nothing to do with militants. "Four people were also wounded.
They were members of Kokikhel," Khattak told Reuters, referring to a
pro-government Pashtun tribe which dominates Khyber.
Anar Bacha, 32, one of the wounded, said they were
innocent.
"We are going to our home in a cab when all of a
sudden planes appeared and began targeting us," he said. "We are
innocent. We are Kokikhels. We are not terrorists."
In April, up to 50 members of the same tribe were killed
in an air raid in Tirah after they were mistaken for Taleban, prompting an
apology from Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.
Khyber is a key route for US and allied convoys carrying
supplies for troops fighting militants in Afghanistan. Fighters frequently
attack these convoys, forcing the United States to look at developing alternate
routes.
Meanwhile, the US State Department is adding the
Pakistani Taleban to a terrorism blacklist and targeting the group and its
leaders with financial and travel sanctions.
In a notice published Wednesday, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said the group, known as the Tehrik-e-Taleban or TTP, advances
terrorism threatening American interests and US national security. She
designated the group a "foreign terrorist organization" under US law.
Lawmakers have been pushing for the move since earlier
this year when a Pakistani-born American pleaded guilty to the failed May 1
Times Square car bombing. The man confessed that he had been trained for the
attack by the Pakistani Taleban to avenge attacks on Muslims by US forces
overseas.
US prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani
Taleban, Hakimullah Mehsud, for the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an
American base in Afghanistan last December, the US Justice Department said on
Wednesday.
Mehsud, believed to be in the tribal areas of Pakistan,
was accused of conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a
weapon of mass destruction, the Justice Department said.
