Islamabad - At least 13 people, including a female councillor and a policeman, were killed in attacks by Taliban militants and security operations by government forces on Monday in north-west Pakistan, officials and media reports said.

Helicopter gunships and artillery pounded several positions of militants in restive Swat district, where the troops are fighting the followers of a radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who wants to enforce Taliban-style rule in the region.

Islamabad, Nov. 24: Rashid Rauf, the British al-Qaeda suspect reportedly killed by a US missile strike in a Pakistani tribal area on Saturday, was linked to the group''s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The Telegraph quoted Pakistani government and intelligence officials as saying that the US believed that Rauf was staying with a group connected to Zawahiri. Zawahiri is believed by American officials to operate from Pakistan''s lawless, tribal border areas.

Islamabad, Nov 24 : Pakistan President Asif Ai Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last evening said that in accordance with recommendations of the recently-formed Parliamentary Committee on National Security, the federal government would work out a new strategy to deal with frequent US drone attacks.

The duo reiterated the government’s resolve not to compromise on national sovereignty and integrity.

Islamabad, Nov 24: Friday’s killing of a key Taliban leader Rashid Rauf in a drone attack proves that US has a sharper intelligence in Pakistan’s borderlands, though political analysts and strategists in Pakistan say that the missile strike was “unlikely to lessen anger” over the US raids.

Islamabad, Nov 24: As part of confidence-building measures (CBMs) between Pakistan and India, Islamabad has reportedly decided to free 101 Indian prisoners, including 99 fishermen.

Islamabad, Nov 24: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the US missile strikes were “undermining Pakistan Army’s strategy” to control the situation in the Tribal Areas, and that some suicide attacks were a “direct result of US attacks”.

He said Pakistan did not have an agreement with the US to allow it to carry out attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets inside Pakistan.