PESHAWAR, Jan 21 (AFP): Pakistani jets and helicopter gunships bombarded suspected Taliban hideouts in a northwestern tribal district Tuesday, killing at least 25 people, in response to two major bombings targeting the military.
The air strikes came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 13 people in a blast near army headquarters-a rare strike close to the heart of Pakistan's powerful military establishment.
The focus of Tuesday's operation was North Waziristan tribal district, a stronghold for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants on the border with Afghanistan.
Among the targets was the home of Adnan Rasheed, a senior Taliban commander who wrote an open letter last year to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education activist shot by militants, justifying the attack on her.
Taliban and military sources said his house was hit but Rasheed himself was later seen alive in the marketplace of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.
Military officials said the strikes were based on "confirmed intelligence reports" and some of those killed were linked to high-profile attacks including a bloody double suicide bombing on a church in the northwestern city of Peshawar in September.
Jet fighters began pounding targets around 12:30am (1930 Monday GMT), an official said, and were later joined by helicopter gunships.
A senior security official told AFP that at least 25 people had been killed.
He said some of the dead were linked to several recent bombings including the Peshawar church and an attack Sunday on paramilitary troops in northwestern Bannu city that killed 26 -- the deadliest on Pakistan's armed forces in recent years.
In claiming responsiblity for the Bannu attack, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threatened more strikes to avenge their former leader Hakimullah Mehsud, killed by a US drone in November.
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