Pakistan strikes back against Taliban

PESHAWAR, Dec 19 (agencies):  Pakistan's military says it has killed 59 militants in ground assaults and air strikes on Taliban units in areas near the border with Afghanistan.

The operations come days after the Taliban killed 141 people at a school in Peshawar, mostly children.

The military has stepped up its offensive against the insurgents in the provinces of the Khyber agency and North Waziristan. Assaults on militants in North Waziristan began in June.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials backed negotiations with two prominent jihadi clerics in a failed attempt to save the life of an American hostage who was later beheaded by Islamic State militants, the Guardian newspaper reported Friday.

The bloody rampage in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday brought international condemnation and promises of swift, decisive action against militants from Pakistan's political and military leaders.

The first executions of militant prisoners are expected in the coming days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases.

An ambush by security forces in the northwest on Friday left at least 32 militants dead, to add to 27 killed in air strikes and ground operations on Thursday.

"Reportedly a group of terrorists was moving from Tirah towards Pak-Afghan border. Security forces ambushed the moving group at Wurmagai and Spurkot, killing 32 terrorists in exchange of fire," a military statement said.

The army has been waging a major offensive against longstanding Taliban and other militant strongholds in the restive tribal areas on the Afghan border for the last six months.

But a series of fresh strikes after the Peshawar attack, which wrought devastation at an army-run school, suggest the military is stepping up its campaign.

As the Peshawar tragedy unfolded, army chief General Raheel Sharif said the attack had renewed the forces' determination to push for the militants' "final elimination".

In the southern city of Karachi on Friday, a suspected local Taliban commander and three cadres were also killed during a raid by government paramilitary Rangers personnel.

"The terrorists threw hand grenades and opened fire on Rangers as they cordoned off their hideout in Musharraf colony during a pre-dawn raid," Rizvi told AFP.

Army chief Sharif signed death warrants for six insurgents convicted in military courts late on Thursday.

It is not clear when the executions will be carried out but a senior security official said the six would be hanged "within days".

The prime minister's announcement that hangings would resume for terror convicts, ending a six-year moratorium, triggered warnings of a possible jailbreak attempt in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the troubled northwestern province that has Peshawar as its capital.