One soldier, 19 militants killed in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - At least one soldier and 19 militants were killed Thursday in two separate clashes in the country’s restive north western region, security officials said.

Fifteen militants were killed when government forces pounded their positions in Orakzai, one of the seven districts in Pakistan’s militancy-plagued tribal region along the Afghan border.

A statement by the paramilitary Frontier Corps said the security forces targeted terrorist hideouts in the village of Mishti Mela, “killing 15 rebels”.

“One soldier also embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and another sustained injuries,” it said. “The security forces also smoothly advanced and occupied important heights around another village, Kambar Masi”.

Encouraged by Washington, Pakistani troops launched a major operation in Orakzai last month against Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters fleeing a mid-October offensive in the neighbouring district of South Waziristan.

According to official data, more than 350 insurgents have been killed in the operation, including Arab and Central Asian fighters associated with Al Qaeda.

The death toll could not be verified through independent sources because media and aid workers have no access to the area.

In the adjoining tribal district of Khyber, a woman died and four children were injured when a stray mortar shell hit a residential area. The shell had apparently been fired by security forces, the DawnNews television reported.

Separately, a group of militants ambushed a security convoy in Swat, a mountainous district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province.

“Our forces retaliated with intense fire. Four attackers died while others managed to flee,” said Major Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, an army spokesman in the district.

Pakistani troops have cleared much of the Swat district of the militants who almost established a parallel government in the region early last year, but sporadic violence continues.