ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani airstrikes pounded militant hideouts in a tribal region along the Afghan border, killing 34 terrorists, the army said Wednesday.
Air force jets bombed several areas in remote Tirah Valley of the Khyber tribal region, an army statement said. The valley is home to militants from the Pakistani Taliban and an allied group called Lashkar-e-Islam.
The Taliban and its allies have been waging an insurgency for more than a decade in Pakistan, seeking to overthrow the government and install their own brand of fundamentalist Islamic rule.
The attacks have killed tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including 17 killed Sunday in a pair of suicide attacks on churches in the eastern city of Lahore. A Taliban-linked group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The airstrikes are part of the military's stepped-up efforts since a militant attack in December killed 150 people, mostly children, at an army-run school in northwestern Peshawar city. That was the first major militant attack since the Pakistani military launched a push in June last year to flush insurgents out of the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
Militants have fled to various other tribal regions, including the Tirah Valley that borders Afghanistan, where they operate on both sides of the border.
