Pak Airforce killed about 20 takfiri terrorists in Khyber blitz

At least 20 suspected takfiri terrorists were killed during airstrikes in Khyber Agency on Friday, said a statement issued by Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR).

Around 18 suspected terrorists were also wounded in the airstrikes, according to the statement.

The ISPR statement added that key militant commanders were among those killed in the blitz.

The details could not be independently verified since the access of journalists is severely restricted in the region.

The precise aerial strikes come amid the ongoing Khyber-2 operation launched by the army in the tribal region and are part of the military’s stepped-up efforts since a militant attack in Dec 2014 killed 150 people, mostly children, at Peshawar’s Army Public School.

The Peshawar incident came months after the army launched Zarb-i-Azb, a grand operation in the North Waziristan tribal region, following a Taliban-claimed attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

Khyber is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous regions governed by tribal laws and lies near the Afghan border. The region was known to be a stronghold of militants belonging to the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and an allied group called Lashkar-i-Islam.