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Pak troops capture key militant town

US drone strike kills 14

AFP, AP, Peshawar/ Khar
Pakistan said yesterday it had captured Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud's hometown as the US demonstrated its support for the war on the Islamists with an air strike that killed 14 people.
"Security forces took control of Kotkai overnight and a clearance operation is in progress," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity at the start of the second week of a major anti-Taliban offensive.
"It is a major breakthrough because it was the stronghold of Taliban and hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain," he added, also referring to a reputed trainer of suicide bombers.
Another security official said ground forces had surrounded the Kotkai village for the past three days as jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant positions.
"Security forces entered Kotkai late Friday after they had secured important heights behind it," the official said.
And in another part of the northwest tribal belt, a missile fired by an unmanned US drone spy plane killed at least 14 people including three foreign militants, local officials said.
The strike took place on a village 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Khar, the main town of the restive Bajaur tribal district.
"Fourteen people are now known to have been killed in the drone attack and the toll is likely to rise," a tribal administration official told AFP Pakistani leaders say the military offensive in a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border is succeeding and have resolved to press ahead despite a ferocious wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed some 200 people this month.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared that "failure is not an option despite the ferocity of these attacks," according to the statement released late Friday after a meeting of top government and military officials.
The army chief. Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, told participants that the offensive is moving ahead successfully and is trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, according to the statement. Some 155,000 civilians have fled the region, the United Nations says.
Pakistan's civilian government and powerful military arc under intense international pressure to root out Islamist militants who arc also blamed for rising attacks on US and Nato troops across the frrtnt itr in A frwK**n• an The army launched the operation last Saturday, pitting around 30,000 troops against an estimated 10-12.000 Taliban fighters where al-Qaeda linked militants are believed to have plotted attacks against the West as well as in Pakistan.
The army has promised to make the Taliban leadership a particular target of their offensive and sealed off the main road into Koktai last weekend.
Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwest tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.
Although the government has said the offensive will deal a decisive blow to the militants, they have continued to carry out attacks in Pakistani cities since the start of the offensive.
On Friday, a bomb attack outside a Pakistani Air Force base killed eight people, including six civilians and two