Pakistan bombs Taliban hideouts

Pakistani jets killed 16 suspected militants in bombing raids  near the Afghan border on Saturday, and police arrested dozens of people, security officials said, the day after Taliban militants killed 29 people in an attack on an air base.
 
The attack on the base on Friday was the deadliest ever militant attack on a Pakistani military installation and is likely to undermine already rocky ties with Afghanistan.
 
Hours after the attack, Pakistan's military spokesman pointedly noted that communications intercepts showed the Pakistani Taliban gunmen were being directed by handlers in Afghanistan.
 
Saturday's air force raids targeted militant bases in the Tirah Valley, which straddles the Afghan border and is a main smuggling route between the two countries, two Pakistani security officials said.
 
"All those killed in the bombing were Pakistani militants," said one security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
 
On Friday, 13 gunmen stormed the Badaber air base, about 10 km south of Peshawar in an attack a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said was retaliation for bombing raids on their bases along the Afghan border.
 
Police picked up dozens of residents living near the base on suspicion of helping the militants organise the attack.
 
"They came from Afghanistan a few days ago and were staying in nearby villages," another security official said of the attackers.
 
"More than 50 people have been arrested over suspicions some of them are linked with the terrorists."
 
For years Pakistan and Afghanistan have traded accusations of not doing enough to stamp out insurgents on either side of their long, porous border.
 

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