Pakistani troops killed 41 militants in their offensive against the Taliban in the northwest while jets bombed insurgent hideouts in response to two suicide attacks, the military said Saturday.

"During last 24 hours, 41 terrorists were killed and two were apprehended in various areas of Malakand and Bannu (districts)," it said in a statement.

One soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in the fighting, it said.

Vocal anti-Taliban religious scholar Sarfraz Naeemi was killed Friday in a suicide bombing at his office, while another bombing at a mosque in northwestern Nowshera town killed four others.

The military said Pakistan Air Force jets bombed two militant hideouts in South Waziristan tribal district after the Lahore suicide attack was claimed by the Taliban umbrella group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based there.

"In response to suicide attack… two terrorists' compounds were targeted by PAF in Makeen, South Waziristan. The number of casualties could not be ascertained," it said.

In Bannu, security forces had secured Zindi Akbar Khan village, a paramilitary fort in Jani Khel village and the area up to Marwat Canal, it said.

"During operation 35 terrorists were killed," the statement said and added that the area was being used as a base for conducting "criminal and terrorist" activities in other Pakistani towns and cities.

Six more militants were killed when they raided a security forces camp in northwestern Swat valley. One soldier also died and four were wounded in the attack, the military said.

The death tolls could not be verified by independent sources as the areas are under military operations.

The campaign in and around Swat was launched under US pressure after Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad, breaking a deal to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace.

Pakistan's tribal zones harbour Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, and Washington has said militants are using the lawless areas to regroup and plan attacks on the West.

earlier related report

Pakistan to boost offensive against Taliban: US

Islamabad plans to rachet up its offensive against Taliban forces in the northwest tribal area of South Waziristan, US defense officials said Friday, confirming rumors so far denied by the Pakistani army.

In addition to the major offensive Islamabad launched in late April to dislodge the hold of Taliban rebels in the northwest Swat valley, Pakistan is planning "a separate campaign in South Waziristan," a senior US defense official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The region is a stronghold for Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's umbrella Taliban organization, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), for Al Qaeda and and other extremists groups.

Mehsud's movement claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings at Pakistani mosques on Friday, and also for the major attack on Peshwar's luxury Pearl Continental hotel on Tuesday.

The TTP will be the primary target for Pakistan's boost in operations, the official said, but the United States hopes such an offensive would also put pressure on Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, who were driven out of Afghanistan after the 2001 US invasion and have established sanctuaries in the region.

These groups are clearly interconnected, the official said, so "an offensive certainly can play an important role," noting that the strategy is to "have pressure on both sides of the border."

A 90,000-strong US and international coalition is fighting the Afghan Taliban and other insurgents on the Afghanistan side.

A second US defense official told reporters the Pakistani army has been redeploying forces to areas surrounding South Waziristan: "We think the initial phase of the operation has already begun," the official said.

Pakistan's military has suffered numerous defeats in the Waziristan tribal areas between 2004 and 2008. In the most recent capitulation the Pakistani military ceded control of the area to the Taliban under a peace agreement.

But at the moment, Washington considers it a better time for Islamabad to succeed in the region.

"The operations that appear to be under way would be the largest operations that have ever been undertaken in Waziristan," the official said.

"This is the first time that we've seen this much public opinion appearing to support the effort.

"The tactics have been adapted to minimize some of the problems that have been associated with past military operations," the official added, who declined to offer a definite timeframe for the phases in internal troop deployments.

In a televised address to the nation, President Asif Ali Zardari early Saturday in Pakistan said the country was battling for its "sovereignty" in the military offensive against the Taliban insurgency.

"We will continue this war until the end, and we will win it at any cost," he said. "The Taliban are the enemies of innocent people. They want to terrorize the people and to take control of the country's institutions."

Taliban-linked attacks have killed more than 1,960 people in Pakistan since July 2007.

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