Pakistani soldiers secured a fort captured from militants in the northwest of the country on Thursday and consolidated their positions on peaks around another insurgent base, the military said.The army launched an offensive on October 17 aimed at rooting out and defeating Pakistani Taliban militants in South Waziristan, a lawless ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border.
Separately, a U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles into North Waziristan, another major al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in northwest Pakistan, killing four militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The offensive is closely watched by the United States and other powers embroiled in neighboring Afghanistan, as South Waziristan's rugged landscape of barren mountains and hidden ravines has become a global center of Islamist militancy.
Foreign al Qaeda fighters are believed hiding there along with thousands of Pakistani insurgents. Fighting has intensified in recent days as troops advanced from three directions on three main militant bases -- Sararogha, Makeen and Ladha.
The military said on Thursday afternoon 28 militants had been killed in South Waziristan in the previous 24 hours, taking their death toll to 422 since the offensive began. Five soldiers including an officer were killed and two were wounded, the military said.