Pakistani forces have cleared militant strongholds from three areas in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, the military said today.
The army is sending reinforcements and tanks to the area after a week of fighting with militants loyal to a Taliban commander the government said was behind the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month.
"Forty miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended," the military said, adding eight soldiers had been killed.
The fighting is in strongholds of militant commander Baitullah Mehsud, who the United States has said was behind Ms Bhutto's assassination in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27th.