Pakistan says 50 Taliban killed in Buner operation

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces have killed 50 Taliban and lost one soldier in an operation to drive the militants out of the strategic valley 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Major-General Athar Abbas told a news conference in Rawalpindi, the garrison town next door to the capital, that forces in Buner has also freed 18 of some 70 police and militiamen kidnapped by the militants Tuesday.

Pakistani soldiers had earlier occupied the main town of Daggar, but hundreds of Taliban remain in the valley.

(Reporting by Augustine Anthony and Zeeshan Haider in Pakistan; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore)