Pakistan's security forces on Thursday killed 26 militants, while two soldiers also died in fighting in the northwest, a bastion of C and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters, officials said.
Troops used heavy artillery to target suspected insurgent bases in two villages in the tribal district of Orakzai, where security forces in March launched a fresh offensive to flush out Islamist militants, AFP reported.
"At least 22 militants were killed in clashes with security forces which targeted hideouts of terrorists in Mishti Mela village of Orakzai," a paramilitary Frontier Corps statement said.
"Two soldiers also embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and two others sustained injuries... The security forces also smoothly advanced and occupied important heights around another village, Kambar Masi," it added.
Earlier Thursday, a group of Taliban fighters attacked a security checkpost in Kabal town in Swat valley, the focus of a blistering military campaign launched last year to oust Islamist militants advancing across the area.
"The security forces retaliated and killed four militants," said Major Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, a spokesman for the army-run Swat media centre.
The army says it has quelled the Taliban uprising in Swat, but sporadic violence continues, while some fear the Swat Taliban are regrouping elsewhere.
The military's death tolls are almost impossible to confirm independently, with much of the northwest out of bounds to aid workers and journalists.
Under US pressure, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in its tribal belt, which Washington has called the most dangerous region on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.
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