Pakistani army: Troops kill about 60 terrorists

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Helicopter gunships and mortar teams pounded Taliban strongholds in a northwestern valley on Wednesday, just as President Barack Obama pushes the leader of Pakistan for more forceful action. The military said it killed about 35 terrorists positioned near emerald mines in the Swat Valley and another 27 in neighboring Buner, where troops have halted a Taliban push toward the capital. Terrorists killed two soldiers with a roadside bomb and two more in an assault on an electricity grid station near Swat's main town, Mingora, a military statement said. "Armed militants have come down from their hideouts into the cities and have occupied civil houses and government buildings" as well as planting bombs to target both troops and civilians, it said. The casualty figures could not be verified independently.