ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army today said 2,763 militants had been killed in the year-long military operation launched last year to flush out local and foreign militants from the country's restive tribal regions.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb was unleashed in June last year after militants had attacked the international airport in Karachi, killing 26 people including airport security staff.
The army today issued details of militants killed and the losses suffered by the forces, showing its achievements in tribal regions in general and North Waziristan and Khyber districts in particular.
It said militants' strongholds, communication infrastructure and sanctuaries had been largely cleared as operation "moves to last few pockets close to Pak-Afghan border".
"So far, 2,763 terrorists were killed, 837 hide-outs destroyed and 253 tonnes of explosive recovered," it said.
It said that 347 officers, soldiers were killed in one year of operation.
Talking about the operations in the cities, the army said that 9,000 intelligence based operations helped to apprehend 1,000 terrorists and their abettors while at least "218 hard core terrorists" were killed in the cities.
It said 18,087 weapons including Heavy Machine Guns, Light Machine gun, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, AK-47s were recovered from terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan alone.
The entire nation stands together to eliminate terrorism while media and the civil society were also playing their role to end the menace of militancy, the statement said.
It added that operation would continue till militancy was completely eliminated from the country.