Military kills 29 militants near Afghan border

The military said it killed 29 Taliban fighters on Wednesday in the final stage of an operation aimed at forcing hundreds of insurgents back across the border into Afghanistan. Soldiers used artillery, helicopter gunships and fighter jets against the insurgents, accused of beheading 17 soldiers in June. The battle was the culmination of weeks of operations in the remote valleys of the Batwar area of Bajaur tribal agency near the border.
It highlighted once again the difficulty of preventing insurgents from crossing the border to launch attacks or flee from Pakistani or Nato forces bolstering the Afghan government. The army launched operations that killed around 120 militants, another security official said from the border town of Peshawar. Twenty-five soldiers also died in the fighting. "The militants escaped to their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and even left the bodies of their slain fighters," said the Peshawar-based official.