Pakistani aircraft bombed Taliban militants today in the Orakzai ethnic Pashtun region, killing at least seven, while soldiers battled insurgents in the main town of the Swat region, government officials said.
Pakistan, a vital ally of the United States as it struggles to bring stability to neighbouring Afghanistan, is engaged in its most concerted effort to roll back a spreading Taliban insurgency that has thrown the nuclear-armed country's future into question.
The army launched an offensive in Swat this month after the militants, emboldened by a controversial peace deal, pushed out of the former tourist valley to conquer neighbouring districts, including one just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
While the army has been focusing on eliminating the Taliban from their Swat bastion, the situation in other militant strongholds on the Afghan border has been relatively quiet.
But today, government forces attacked a group of militants in Orakzai who were preparing to travel to the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border to fight the army there, security officials said.
Government fighter aircraft bombed militant hideouts in several strikes on three villages over the course of several hours, said Yaseen Khan, a senior government official in the region's main town of Ghaljo.
"We have seven confirmed dead but there must be a bigger number of casualties as these were very precise and accurate strikes," Mr Khan told Reuters.
A Taliban spokesman in the region, Maulvi Haider, said 13 of his men had been killed and he vowed revenge.
"We'll hit back and our target could be anywhere in Pakistan," Mr Haider said by telephone.
Residents said the aircraft had struck a madrasa, or Islamic religious school, which was being used by the militants.
The elimination of militant strongholds on the border, from where they orchestrate their war in Afghanistan, is vital for U.S. plans to defeat the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.
President Asif Ali Zardari told Britain's Sunday Timesnewspaper in an interview published a week ago that after Swat, the army would move against militants in Waziristan.
However, he was later reported to have denied that.
The army said on Saturday street fighting had erupted in Mingora, the main town in Swat, as security forces mounted a new phase of their offensive.
Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told a news conference the operation in Mingora was likely to be slow because security forces wanted to avoid civilian casualties.
He said the majority of Mingora's residents had moved out and only 5 to 10 percent of the population was still in the town. He feared that militants could use them as "human shields".
Reuters