PESHAWAR: Pakistani warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded Taliban positions in the country’s volatile northwest today, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents, security officials said, as the government kept up pressure on Islamist militants along the Afghan border.

Elsewhere in the northwest, clashes between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead in the latest violence between tribal militias and insurgents.

The government airstrikes hit three suspected militant positions in the Orakzai region, part of the rugged, lawless tribal belt along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, two security officials said.

The strikes took place in the same region where a military chopper crashed yesterday.