Pakistan launches airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-pakistan-airstrikes-20140121,0,1353416.story

Pakistan launches airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts
By Zulfiqar Ali and Shashank Bengali
January 21, 2014, 4:08 a.m.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- After two days of deadly attacks against security forces, Pakistani air force jets bombarded suspected insurgent hideouts in the country’s tribal belt early Tuesday, killing at least 20 people, officials said.

Residents reached by telephone said the airstrikes began around midnight and continued for over an hour in North Waziristan, a lawless zone in the tribal belt that is believed to be a haven for Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda militants who carry out attacks in Pakistan as well as across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistani security officials claimed that multiple hideouts were struck and that 20 militants were killed. Residents said the death toll was 25. The Times could not verify the accounts independently or determine whether the dead were militants or civilians.

"Planes were roaring in the sky late night, which created panic and people could not sleep,” one resident of Miram Shah, the administrative capital of North Waziristan, said by phone.