Pakistan pounds tribal regions

ISTANBUL, Pakistan, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Pakistani gunships attacked Taliban strongholds in a major military operation Tuesday in South Waziristan, killing more than two dozen militants.

Security forces launched a raid on the Pakistan Taliban in South Waziristan. Military forces came under fire from as many as 600 militants in a separate incident at a checkpoint in North Waziristan.

Military sources to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said as many as 34 militants were killed in the South Waziristan operations, while militants offered rival accounts of killing 45 members of the Pakistani national forces.

Pakistani military Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas announced Monday that the government issued directives last week to military forces to prepare for the Waziristan operations.

He said local leaders in the volatile tribal regions had supported the military operation and provided the army with vital information about militant activity in the area.

The tribal regions along the Afghan border with Pakistan are notorious strongholds for al-Qaida and members of the Taliban.

Earlier Pakistani operations in the tribal regions subsided following the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike on a village in South Waziristan on Aug. 5.