ORAKZAI AGENCY - At least 13 suspected militants were killed and 16 others injured when jet fighters hit their hideouts at Mamonzai in Orakzai Agency on Monday.According to details, the jet fighters, backed by the security forces, pounded militants’ positions in Argheljo, Mir Qalamkhel, Mamonzai and other adjacent areas. The fighters started targeting the hideouts of the militants at 3:30pm, which continued for about one hour.Sources said at least 13 militants were killed and more than one dozen others sustained injuries in the attack. Besides, five positions of the militants were destroyed while a double-cabin vehicle laden with explosives was also damaged.The TTP spokesman for Orakzai Agency, on other hand, claimed the jet fighters had targeted houses with no inmates and there had been no casualties in the bombing. The targeted houses, he said, had been vacated by the dwellers about one year back. Orakzai is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions in the northwest, where Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants are said to have carved out strongholds.The area was the original base of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud before he moved to South Waziristan to take up the Taliban leadership after the death of his predecessor, Baituallah Mehsud.Unlike the six other tribal agencies, however, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan. The rugged mountainous territory provides a crucial link for militants operating in other tribal regions, as it borders the regions of Khyber and Kurram on the Afghan frontier. It also borders Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Pakistan’s main northwestern city, as well as the garrison town of Kohat.

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