KABUL (PAN): The Pakistan Army has claimed clearing a militant stronghold in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, and killing a large number of foreign insurgents including Uzbeks and Arabs.

A commander of the ongoing military offensive said on Tuesday security forces had purged Srarogha -- a Taliban bastion in the inhospitable mountainous region -- of fighters as a result of a five-day battle that left 180 militants dead.

Brigadier Shafiq told journalists in Wana the army had wrested back complete control of Srarogha from the rebels. Geo News quoted the military officer as saying the forces had seized 70 landmines and 21 suicide jackets during the swoop.

During the Rah-e-Nijat operation, he added, seven soldiers were killed and 14 others sustained injuries. The troops were closing in on Makeen and Janata towns, major Taliban strongholds that might be cleared within a week, Shafiq said.

The army had taken control of most of the population centres and disrupted the militants' food supply line, claimed military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. The myth that the region had been a graveyard of empires and that it would prove a burial ground for the army had been exploded, he remarked.

In mid-October, 30,000 troops stormed into South Waziristan to flush out the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members and their tribal collaborators, blamed for a string of deadly bomb attacks that have killed more thousands of people in recent years.

Around 550 terrorists and 70 soldiers had been killed since the launch of the offensive on October 17, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations chief. Over 250,000 people have been displaced by the operation.

PAN Monitor/mud