Eleven militants killed in Pakistan’s restive northwest

Pakistan’s military forces have killed about a dozen militants in the country’s restive northwestern tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.

The military said in a statement on Thursday that “eleven terrorists were killed and four others injured” in Khyber district.

The military added “eight terrorist hideouts close to the Afghan border” were also destroyed by “precision air strikes and synchronized ground operations.”

On Tuesday, the military announced that it had killed at least 14 militants in the same area.

The army offensive against militants has been going on in the mountainous terrain of Babar Kachkol, Naray Nao and Tor Sapar areas of Khyber.

Khyber is one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies or districts, where the army has been battling al-Qaeda-linked terrorists and pro-Taliban militants for years, especially after the US-led invasion in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and the subsequent spillover of militancy into the region.

In June 2014, the Pakistani army intensified its anti-militancy efforts by deploying some 30,000 troops near the border with Afghanistan to wipe out militant bases in the tribal area and bring an end to the bloody militancy.