Troops target militants in Swat

Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships targeted Islamist militant hide-outs in the Swat Valley, the military said, after fierce fighting killed 50 militants and 10 soldiers in the last 24 hours.

The clashes in Pakistan’s northwest erupted after militants attacked a security patrol and a suicide car bomber killed eight policemen elsewhere in the valley.

The valley had been one of the country’s main tourist destinations until last year when Pakistani Taliban fighters infiltrated from enclaves on the Afghan border to support a radical cleric who seeks to impose hard-line Islamist rule.