At least 45 militants were on Wednesday killed in two separate US drone strikes in Pakistan’s unruly tribal belt in the latest such attack against terrorist bases even as Taliban commander in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, was “critically injured” in a targeted strike by the Army.

“(According to) credible information, in one of the (Army) strikes, Fazlullah has been injured,” Chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said. Military sources were quoted by TV news channels as saying that Fazlullah, also known as Mullah FM for his fiery sermons, was injured in a targeted strike in the Shahdheri area of Swat.

Last month, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had claimed that Fazlullah was injured.

The hit on Fazlullah came as a wave of missiles fired by US drones targeting insurgent bases, including a training centre for militants, in South Waziristan killed 45 Taliban militants.

In the first drone attack, ten militants were killed and five more injured in South Waziristan. The drone fired several missiles at a training centre run by militants loyal to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud in Karwan Manza area.

Hours later, 20 km to the east, another US drone hit four vehicles carrying Taliban militants, killing at least 35, an intelligence official was quoted as saying. Other intelligence officials put the death toll as high as 50.

A meeting of senior Pakistani military officials, which was chaired in Rawalpindi by Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, concluded the “top leadership of the Malakand-based terrorists is being pursued relentlessly” after the “middle and low level leadership has been killed or apprehended”.