Islamabad, Aug 30 (DPA) More than 30 militants were killed in an overnight aerial strike by security forces in Pakistan’s restive North West Frontier province, army officials said Saturday.”Jet plans targeted a militant hideout in Matta sub-district late Friday afternoon,” a military spokesman, Major Murad Khan, said.

More than 30 insurgents, including their local commander Mufti Saeedur Rehman, were killed and over 40 injured, he added.

A local security official told DPA late Friday that the strikes followed an intelligence report that Maulana Fazlullah, who has lead the Islamic insurgency in the region for enforcement of Taliban rule since last year, was present in the area with some important lieutenants.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 22 rebels were killed.

Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the fugitive cleric Fazlullah, confirmed that commander Rehman and another cadre died in the strike, but claimed that no others militants killed.