(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Pakistan's army claims to have killed 22 suspected Taliban fighters during operations in the restless northwestern North Waziristan tribal region.
The army's media wing, Inter services Public Relations, said 12 of the the suspected militants were killed in a ground offensive 10 kilometers southwest of the town of Dattakhel, near the border with Afghanistan, late Sunday night.
Pakistani jets also pounded militant hideouts in parts of North Waziristan killing 10 suspected militants, said the army's mouthpiece Monday, adding that the deceased included several "foreigners".
There have now been more than 2,600 militants killed by the army since it began anti-Taliban operations in North Waziristan adjoining tribal areas last June.
The figures cannot be independently verified as media are barred from entering areas hit by the operation.
Over 100 soldiers have also been killed by landmines and clashes with the Taliban in the last year.
The operations has displaced at some 1.5 million people from Pakistan's tribal areas.
Meanwhile, officials said a local government official was among three people killed in a roadside blast in the South Waziristan tribal region, a former stronghold of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant network.
A roadside blast hit the vehicle the official and his guards were travelling in near Wana, the administrative headquarters of South Waziristan.
The TTP was uprooted from South Waziristan in the wake of a military operation launched in 2009.
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