Troops kill 12 militants in Swat: army

 The army launched an offensive in April and says at least 2,150 militants have been killed in Swat and neighbouring Buner and Lower Dir districts, claiming in July to have wiped out most of the insurgent bastions.

Troops conduct search operations in S Waziristan Troops conduct search operations in S Waziristan PESHAWAR: Troops killed 12 suspected militants in operations in northwest Swat valley, where the military claims to have stemmed an uprising, the army said Thursday.

The first incident took place late Wednesday in Seigram village, about 25 kilometres northwest of Swat’s main city Mingora, where security forces seeking a local insurgent commander stormed a Taliban hideout.

‘An exchange of fire took place resulting in the deaths of 10 miscreants and injuries to one soldier,’ the army-run Swat media centre said in a statement, adding that the militant commander was among those killed.

Two other militants were killed in a shoot-out with security forces in Swat’s Matta town on Thursday morning, the centre added.

Swat slipped out of government control in July 2007 after radical cleric Mullah Fazlullah mounted a violent campaign in which his followers beheaded opponents, burnt schools and fought to enforce Islamic sharia law.

The army launched an offensive in April and says at least 2,150 militants have been killed in Swat and neighbouring Buner and Lower Dir districts, claiming in July to have wiped out most of the insurgent bastions.

But clashes and suicide attacks continue, with a provincial lawmaker killed in Swat on Tuesday when a man with explosives strapped to his body walked unchallenged into the grounds of his home and blew himself up.

The military is now engaged in a fierce offensive in the northwest tribal belt along the Afghan border, where the core Taliban leadership and Al-Qaeda-linked militants are holed up in the rugged mountain terrain.