Army kills 55 militants in Pakistan

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Pakistani forces killed 55 Islamist militants in clashes and airstrikes, officials said Saturday, as the government expanded a military offensive after a school massacre.
According to dpa, no fewer than 16 Taliban fighters were killed in separate clashes at two checkpoints in the Orakzai tribal district, the military said in a statement. It said four soldiers were wounded.
Fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in North Waziristan tribal district overnight, killing 39 Islamist fighters and destroying an underground ammunition dump, the military said.
The offensive that began in mid-June was extended after Taliban insurgents killed 136 children at an army-run school in the north-western city of Peshawar on December 16.
Both Orakzai and North Waziristan districts are partially controlled by the militants. Independent confirmation of the military's claims was not possible.
In the capital Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Friday that his government would expand the offensive to cities to also target jihadists involved in sectarianism and Islamic extremism.
Hours later, a court issued arrest warrants for a radical cleric at Islamabad's Red Mosque after he tried to justify the Taliban attack at the Peshawar school.
The Pakistani military killed more than 100 people when it raided the mosque in 2007 after veiled female students of cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz tried to establish Taliban-style Sharia rule in the city.
The cleric refused to condemn the school attack and said it was understandable after an "un-Islamic" offensive by the military, inviting protest by civil society activists.            

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