ISLAMABAD

Pakistani security forces killed at least 23 militants during security operations in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, the military said on Thursday.

Security forces carried out two separate operations in the Kurram district near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Wednesday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistani army, said in a statement.

Pakistani forces have escalated their intelligence-based operations in multiple districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after recent attacks in the capital Islamabad and various parts of the province.

On Monday, the military also killed at least four militants in Bajaur, North Waziristan and Dera Ismail Khan.

A day earlier, the ISPR said that the military killed at least 23 militants in two major clashes in the Bajaur and Bannu districts.

On Sunday, at least 15 more militants were killed during operations in the Dera Ismail Khan and North Waziristan districts.

Last week, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Judicial Complex in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly three dozen others.

Earlier, militants attacked Cadet College in the Wana region of the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border. Security forces foiled the attack and killed all five militants who entered the college after a suicide bomber destroyed the main gate.