ISLAMABAD
Twenty-five people have been killed, and 30 wounded in night-long bombardment by Pakistani war planes and gunship helicopters in different parts of troubled North Waziristan, local and army sources said.
The large-scale offensive follows two suicide attacks by the Taliban in adjacent Bannu district, and the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Sunday and Monday, respectively, which killed 28 soldiers, and 7 civilians.
Army officials said that war planes and helicopters pounded militant hideouts in different parts of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan, and Mir Ali, the second largest town, whereas locals claimed that most of the dead were civilians, and had nothing to do with militants.
"Twenty-five militants have been killed in night-long targeted operations in different parts of Miranshah, and Mir Ali", a military official detailed in the region told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to talk to the media.
He also said among the militants killed were those who were involved in the Bannu suicide attack and an attack on a church in Peshawar in September last year.
However, local sources and journalists contest the army official's claim saying houses and shops were hit in the air strikes.
"Hundreds of residents of Badami, Malakasdaar, Nawana, Hamzoni, Tappi, Issori and other villages have left their homes this morning following the bombardment, while many are preparing to leave", a local journalist told AA wishing not to be named.
He asserted that a majority of deceased and wounded were civilians as the army targeted residential areas indiscriminately.
The operation, according to local sources, began at around 9 pm local time on Monday night and continued till morning with short intervals in different parts of Miranshah, and Mir Ali.
Twenty-two soldiers were killed and dozens injured in a suicide attack on a security convoy in nearby Bannu district on Sunday morning where security forces had assembled to move to North Waziristan.
Just 24 hours after, another suicide bomber rocked an army headquarters in Rawalpindi, killing 6 soldiers and 7 civilians.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of various Taliban groups in Pakistan, has claimed the responsibility for both attacks.
This is the second army operation in North Waziristan over the past month as Pakistani air forces had struck Mir Ali town in December 2013 a day after the killing of 5 soldiers in a suicide attack in the restive region. Some 70 people, mostly civilians were killed and dozens wounded in the three-day long operation. The region remained under siege for the next 6 days as security forces had clamped a curfew in the area.
North Waziristan, often dubbed as heartland of militancy and a bastion of powerful Haqqani network -- a militant group which is blamed for deadly attacks on foreign forces in neighboring Afghanistan -- has never been a stronghold of the TTP. It is the hub of an anti-TTP group commonly known Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, which according to security experts, work as a cover for Haqqani network. The group has been in a tacit peace agreement with Pakistani security forces since 2006 under which the two sides do not attack each other.
TTP militants managed to see refuge in isolated parts of North Waziristan after a military onslaught on South Waziristan, the then headquarters of the formidable group, in 2009 following a brazen attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, better known as General Headquarters.
TTP has gradually strengthened its roots and contacts in parts of this mountainous region bordering northeastern Khost province of Afghanistan.
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