Forces on Sunday said troops killed nine more militants as the siege tightened around Taliban strongholds in the troubled South Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan. Foot soldiers cordoned off the Sararogha village, a Taliban haven, from three sides and cleared nearly half of the town of Kaniguram.
"The operation is progressing smoothly," a military statement said. However, a fierce gunfight in the Patok Narai area left two soldiers dead. With the latest casualties, 331 militants and 36 soldiers have been killed since the operation started on October 17. The figures provided by the army could not be verified independently as the war zone is closed to journalists.
The military said on Sunday that the security forces surrounded Makeen from three directions. The town served as the main base of Pakistani Taliban insurgents.
The two-week offensive in the tribal badlands, which consist of dense woodlands and hill ranges separated by ridges, is seen as a test of the government's commitment to dismantle the key Taliban network that is blamed for 80 per cent of the terrorist activity in the country.
In October, more than 300 people died in a string of militant attacks on both civilian and official targets across the country. United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed appreciation for the military action earlier this week, saying "this is a fight that has to be won."
The Waziristan region is considered the main global hub of al Qaeda, from where hard-core fighters mount deadly attacks on the Western forces battling the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
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