Pakistani official: Troops seize key Taliban village

By Ivan Watson
CNN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) - Pakistani troops have seized a key village in the Taliban stronghold region of South Waziristan, a senior Pakistani military official said Saturday.

"Kotkai village has been captured by the military," said the official who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Kotkai has been a major target because it is the hometown of the Pakistani Taliban's leader Hakimullah Mehsud, as well as of Qari Hussain, believed to be behind some of the deadliest suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan.

The development comes a day after the military said it had captured one of the heights overlooking Kotkai.

The Pakistani military launched its long-awaited offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan a week ago, which the military said faced stiff resistance from militants in South Waziristan.

On Friday, the army reported one soldier was killed in fighting around Kotkai. The military said another soldier was killed in a different part of the mountainous district, where militants "are firing rockets from different locations on advancing forces."

International journalists and aid workers have been barred from traveling to South Waziristan.