Pakistan airstrikes on Taliban hideouts kill at least 15

Miranshah, Pakistan: Pakistani fighter jets and gunship helicopters bombarded hideouts of Taliban militants in the troubled northwest on Tuesday killing at least 15 militants, officials said.

The early morning attack on hideouts in the North and South Waziristan tribal districts were the fourth in a series of airstrikes by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) since February 20.

"At least 15 militants were killed and several of their hideouts destroyed, the death toll may increase," a security official in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, told AFP.

Earlier this month Pakistan had entered into talks with the Taliban aimed at ending their seven-year insurgency.

But the militant group has continued carrying out attacks on a near-daily basis, with dialogue suspended after the insurgents claimed last week they had executed 23 kidnapped soldiers in a northwestern tribal region.

Since then the PAF has conducted a series of airstrikes in the volatile tribal regions bordering Afghanistan which are considered a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban and foreign fighters.