Pakistani government forces killed 52 Islamist militants today to the south of the Khyber region, where a vital supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan passes.
Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on the road into land-locked Afghanistan since last year, exposing the vulnerability of Western supply links just as the United States is planning a surge of troops to tackle the Taliban.
Army helicopter gunships attacked the militants near the border between the Khyber and Orakzai regions, said Tariq Hayat, Khyber's top administration official.
"Fifty-two militants were killed and a huge ammunition depot and eight vehicles were destroyed," he said. "Most of the deaths occurred because the destruction of the ammunition depot triggered a series of explosions," he said.
There was no independent verification of the casualty figure that Mr Hayat said came from the helicopter pilots and air surveillance.
Security has deteriorated sharply in northwestern Pakistan along the Afghan border including in the Khyber region, since last year.
Earlier, a suicide car bomber blew himself up and wounded seven people when police stopped him at a checkpoint on a small bridge on the road through the Khyber Pass.
The blast damaged the bridge and a truck waiting to cross it but an administration official said he suspected the bomber was heading to a bigger bridge destroyed in an explosion on Tuesday that soldiers are repairing.
Th US military sends 75 percent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 per cent of the fuel for its troops.
Reuters