PESHAWAR: Pakistani airstrikes killed at least 21 militants Sunday in attacks on their hide-outs in a restive northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The attacks were launched in the Kuki Khel area of the Khyber tribal district, where the Taleban and another banned group, Lashkar-e-Islam, have taken refuge. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), two militant hideouts were also destroyed.

“In precision air strikes, at least 10 militants were killed and their three hideouts were destroyed in Khyber,” a senior military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Separate airstrikes also killed eleven other militants in the remote Datta Khel village of restive North Waziristan tribal district and destroyed two militant hide outs, the official said.

Earlier on August 30, at least 32 suspected militants had been killed and three militant hideouts were destroyed by army aviation’s gunship helicopters in a remote area of Bangidar in North Waziristan.

Local government and intelligence officials confirmed the death toll.

Pakistan has been battling militant groups in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004 after its army entered the region to search for Al-Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

In 2014 the Pakistan Army has been fighting since June to demolish bases belonging to the pro-Taleban militants in the tribal areas.

In June the army began an offensive in the North Waziristan district after a bloody raid on Karachi Airport ended faltering peace talks with the Taleban.

North Waziristan had become a major base for the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, which rose up against the state in 2007.

The United States had long called for military action in the tribal areas because militant groups there had targeted NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan Army says it has killed more than a thousand militants since June when it started its clean-up operations along its border with Afghanistan.

At least 86 Pakistani soldiers have also been killed during the operations.

The death toll and identity of those killed is impossible to verify because journalists do not have regular access to the conflict zones. Critics say many of the dead were non-combatants.

The militant groups in Pakistan have carried out numerous attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians.

Many Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when the Pakistani government entered an alliance with Washington in its so-called war on terror.