Airstrikes kill 13 militants in northwest Pak

Meanwhile, a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle killed a passer-by and wounded five others in a market in the southwest Baluchistan province. An ethnic Baluch nationalist group claimed responsibility.

The Pakistani army, using helicopter gunships, fighter jets and ground troops, has pursued an offensive against militants in Bajur, a tribal region considered a militant stronghold, since early August. The army says it has killed 1,500 insurgents in Bajur.

The US has praised the offensive, saying it has helped reduce violence on the Afghan side of the border.

Government official Jamil Khan said the strikes Sunday targeted six militant hide-outs and killed at least 13 insurgents. The claims are nearly impossible to verify independently because of restrictions on travel in the remote, dangerous region.

In a phone call to reporters, Baluchistan Republican Army spokesman Sarbaz Baluch said the group was behind the attack. He claimed the explosion killed an opponent of the movement, but police would not confirm that.

The Baluchistan Republican Army is part of a low-level insurgency that has long rattled the province. The insurgents are seeking greater provincial autonomy and more control over the area’s natural resources.

Elsewhere in Pakistan’s northwest, security forces fatally shot a local journalist late on Saturday, officials said. The killing occurred in the Swat Valley area, where the military also is engaged in an offensive against insurgents.

The journalist, Mohammad Shoaib, worked for the Azadi newspaper and apparently did not stop his vehicle when signaled to do so, said Anwar Saadat, a police officer.

Mazhar Abbas, a top official with the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, confirmed the shooting, as did Akhtar Ali, a colleague of Shoaib’s at the Azadi paper. Abbas said local journalists already had staged protests in Mingora and that more were planned.