Warplanes struck five militant hideouts in a Taliban stronghold near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing 65 insurgents, the military said. The strikes, carried out in two phases hours apart, targeted areas in the North Waziristan tribal region, where the military has been conducting a major offensive since mid-June, the army said in a statement.
The strikes came a day after the Pakistani Taliban took credit for a weekend attack on a navy dockyard on the other side of the country, in the port city of Karachi. In the first batch of Wednesday airstrikes, the military reported killing 35 militants in three hideouts in Datta Khel, a town in North Waziristan. Hours later, it said a second batch of airstrikes destroyed two more hideouts in the tribal region's Shawal Valley, killing 30 more militants. The strikes came a day after the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack on the dockyard in Karachi.