Pakistani residents distribute food to civilians fleeing a military operation in the North Waziristan tribal agency on their arrival in the nieghbouring Bannu district

AFP/Karachi

Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded militant targets in the country's northwest Friday, killing up to 20 rebels, as the number of civilians fleeing an expected ground offensive passed 200,000.
Nearly 150,000 people have left North Waziristan tribal area on the Afghan border this week after the military launched a long-awaited assault against Taliban hideouts.
The authorities eased a shoot-on-sight curfew on Wednesday to give civilians a chance to leave before troops begin a full-blooded ground operation.
A senior security official told AFP that helicopter gunships targeted militant hideouts in an early morning raid in Kutabkhel area of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, killing up to 20 militants.
A local intelligence official also confirmed the attack and casualties.
Nearly 250 insurgents have been killed since the start of the operation on Sunday, according to security officials, though it is not possible to confirm the number or identity of those killed.
The military offensive began after a bloody and dramatic attack on Karachi airport last week brought an end to months of largely fruitless government efforts to negotiate a peace deal with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The fighting has triggered a huge exodus of civilians from North Waziristan, both into the Pakistani cities of Bannu, Peshawar and Kohat and across the border into Afghanistan.
"Some 157,000 people have arrived in Bannu from different areas of North Waziristan," Arshad Khan, director general of the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Disaster Management Authority, told AFP on Friday.
Registration points and camps have been set up to deal with the influx of people in Bannu, but many prefer to travel on to stay with relatives in other areas.
In Afghanistan, Khost administration spokesman Mubarez Mohammad Zadran told AFP that 1,400 refugee families had registered and estimated that as many as 10,000 families -- or 70,000 to 80,000 people -- could be scattered across the border province.

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