Total deadlock as jets bomb Taliban hideouts, kill 40: Prime Minister approves air strikes

Pakistani fighter jets bombed suspected militant hideouts in an ethnic Pashtun area on the Afghan border on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, security officials said, after attempts to engage insurgents in peace talks collapsed this week. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif authorised the air strikes, a source in his office said - a possible sign he was finally giving in to pressure from the military for tougher military action against Pakistani Taliban strongholds.
"After restraining the army for three days, the prime minister himself authorised the strikes last night," the government official said. "It was the only option to teach the Taliban a lesson." Sharif, who came to power last year promising to find a negotiated peace with the Taliban, has been trying to engage the militants in negotiations.
But talks broke down this week when a Taliban wing operating in the Mohmand Pashtun tribal region said it had executed 23 soldiers in revenge for the killing of their fighters by the security forces. "At least 40 militants were killed in the precision strikes in the Mir Ali area," one Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters. "Six different locations were bombed." Another official said among the army's targets were training camps run by Uzbek and Turkmen fighters.
Earlier, security officials had said fifteen militants were killed. The air strikes could herald a broader military offensive in North Waziristan. The morning air attacks came just hours after the army said more than 100 soldiers had been killed by Taliban militants in the last five months, a rare admission of relatively heavy casualties. In an unusually tough statement, Sharif's spokesman said in televised remarks late on Wednesday that the army was capable of crushing all enemies. "The prime minister wants to resolve these issues without bloodshed but if the Taliban continue killing people then we will be left with no choice but to keep our citizens safe from terrorism through any means possible," spokesman Pervez Rashid said.-Reuters
AFP adds: "Air strikes were carried out to target militant hideouts with precision," the official said. "A huge cache of arms and ammunition has also been destroyed." A second strike targeted militants hiding and arms stockpiles in the Khyber tribal district who are suspected of bombing a cinema in Peshawar last week and killing an army major on Tuesday, a second security official said.
A third security official in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said air attack lasted more than an hour, while many local residents fled to safer areas. The air strikes and spiralling violence cast further doubt on a troubled peace process between the government and the insurgents just three weeks after talks began. Despite the new bloodshed, Professor Ibrahim Khan, a Taliban peace negotiator, told AFP Thursday there was still a chance of a settlement. The Taliban said 60 of their members had died before Thursday's strikes. They have accused the army of executing members while they are in custody.