Militants fired on helicopter gunships and attacked Pakistani troops advancing into their main sanctuary near the Afghan border today as the army pressed ahead with its most critical offensive yet against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Pakistan’s Taliban chief has been killed in a CIA missile strike and his body buried, three intelligence officials said today.

US drones prowled the sky over Pakistan’s South Waziristan yesterday, a day after one of the aircraft attacked a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing about 70 militants.

Pakistani jet fighters flattened at least three suspected Taliban training facilities in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region today, killing or wounding several insurgents, two senior intelligence officials said.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto vowed today to continue campaigning despite a double suicide bomb attack which left more 130 of her supporters dead.