LANDI KOTAL / KALAYA: At least eight suspected militants were killed in air strikes in Bara area of Khyber Agency and five in attacks on their hideouts in Lower Orakzai on Sunday.

According to official sources, helicopter gunships and planes bombed the banned Lashkar-i-Islam`s positions in Spin Qabar, Gud Malang, Dro Adda and Sherin Darra localities of Bara after militants attacked two security convoys in Spin Qabar and Gud Malang areas.

A soldier was killed and another injured in an attack on the convoys.

At least eight suspected militants were killed and seven injured in the air strikes.

However, LI spokesman Saifullah claimed in a text message to journalists that 25 security personnel had been killed and 17 of the bodies were in militants` possession.

The claims could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, a woman and a teenage girl were 1(illed and six other people, including two women and a child, injured when mortar shells fell on houses in Akkakhel area. The injured were taken to hospitals in Peshawar.

Two vacant houses, belonging to Tahir and Dawlat Khan, were destroyed in Akkakhel by stray mortar shells.

At least five suspected militants were killed and four hideouts destroyed in attacks by security forces in Orakzai Agency.

According to officials, the action was taken after a mortar attack on a security post in Sherin Darra. A man was killed and four others, three security personnel among them, injured in the attack.

Security forces attacked suspected militant positions on the hilltops in Sherin Darra and Khwa Darra areas of Lower Orakzai tehsil.

The officials said the militants had fired mortar shells from the hilltops around Kalaya, the headquarters of Orakzai Agency.