BANNU, Pakistan: Pakistan’s military Sunday bombed six militant boltholes in a lawless tribal district, killing at least 28 insurgents, officials said.

The airstrikes targeted Shawal village in the troubled North Waziristan region, where militants fleeing a military offensive in other parts of the district had taken refuge.

“At least 28 local and foreign terrorists were killed in today’s airstrikes and their six hideouts were destroyed,” a senior military official told AFP.

Local security officials confirmed the account, but it was not possible to independently verify the casualties as the offensive is ongoing and media are banned from the area.

Pakistani jets and artillery began hitting rebel targets in North Waziristan in mid-June to try to regain full control of the district and ground forces moved in on June 30.

The assault by Pakistan’s military was launched after a dramatic attack by militants on Karachi airport which killed dozens of people and marked the end of a faltering peace process with the Pakistani Taleban.

More than 400 militants and 25 soldiers have been killed in the assault so far, according to

Civilian dies in Indian

border fire

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials on Sunday accused Indian troops of killing a civilian and wounding four others in “unprovoked firing” across the border in its eastern province of Punjab.

India and Pakistan often accuse each other of violating a 2003 cease-fire agreement. The two countries have fought three wars, two of them over the divided and disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistani officials said the latest firing came from an area in the south of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, facing the Pakistani district of Sialkot.

“A civilian embraced martyrdom and four others were wounded when Indian Border Security Force resorted to unprovoked firing in Charwa and Harpal sectors overnight and today,” a military official said.



told AFP.

“Pakistan Rangers effectively responded to Indian BSF fire” near Sialkot, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Earlier this month Indian police accused the Pakistani army of killing a soldier and injuring seven other people during firing along the border in the same region.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided and administered separately by India and Pakistan but claimed by both in full.

About a dozen rebel groups who want Kashmir to become independent or incorporated into Pakistan have been fighting Indian forces since 1989.

The fighting has left tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, dead.