KHAR - The security forces have concluded military operations against militants in Bajaur Agency after successfully overrunning Taliban and Al-Qaeda headquarters in Damadola.

Local military commanders told a group of media persons on Tuesday that as many as 22,00 militants had been killed since the launch of operation "Sherdil" in August 2008, while 149 troops embraced martyrdom and 615 got injured.

"Damadola used to be nerve centre of terrorism because of its strategic importance linked to Afghanistan, Chitral, and Swat-Malakand region," Commandant Frontier Corps Major General Tariq Khan said while briefing media persons at Damadola. DG ISPR Major General Ather Abbas was also present.

General Khan said the security forces had razed a key Taliban and Al-Qaeda complex dug into rocky mountains close to Mulla Salam ridge and the Afghan border after killing 75 local and foreign militants.

"There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans killed in the operation," he said, adding that Al-Qaeda was there and had occupied the ridges. "There were 156 caves designed as a defensive complex," he said.

Tariq Khan said that for the first time Pakistan Army uniformed soldiers had arrived in Damadola after a recent operation and the Pakistan flag had been raised for the first time since (independence in) 1947.

Damadola, in the Bajaur tribal region, was the scene of a 2006 US drone strike that targeted Al-Qaeda number 2 Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.

The Commander likened the area in 2008 to an independent state run by an Afghan warrior, he identified as Qazi Ziaur Rehman, who was in charge of administration and collected tax from local people.

Maulavi Faqir Mohammad, who headed Pakistan's umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban faction in Bajaur, received help from neighbouring Afghan province Kunar but was now on the run, the military said. "We will deal with him," Khan said.

"We have now cleared this area till the Afghan border. Military operation is in its final stages and policing has been started," he said, adding that Damadola covered four to six square kilometres and lies nearly 20 kilometres from the Afghan border.