Pakistani security forces launched operations against the Taliban in an area captured last week by militants, a military spokesman said Tuesday. Meanwhile, troops finished a similar offensive in another northern district near Islamabad, killing up to 75 rebels, the military was quoted as saying by DPA. Jet planes and helicopter gunships targeted militant positions in the mountains surrounding the Buner Valley in the Buner district, 100 kilometres north-west of Islamabad, Major General Athar Abbas told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital. "The overall objectives of the operation are to eliminate and expel militants from Buner," Abbas said. He said the operation was mainly conducted by the paramilitary Frontier Corps, (FC) but regular army troops were assisting them. The United States welcomed the assault. "We are very much encouraging of those efforts and stand ready to help them in any way that we could," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.
