Taliban chief target after deaths

PAKISTAN said it will pursue an army operation against the country’s top Taliban commander, a feared militant based in a tribal region along the Afghan border where a suspected US missile strike killed five people yesterday.

The announcement came as violence raged in other parts of the volatile north-west. A bombing at a market killed at least eight people, while officials said clashes between the Taliban and security forces killed at least 20 militants in a tribal area supposedly cleared of insurgents months ago.