July 19: Pakistan Air Force (PAF) planes and helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts in the Orakzai and Central Kurram Agency, killing 42 militants and injuring 27.
July 18: At least 25 militants were killed and 23 were injured when PAF fighter jets and helicopter gunships bombed various parts of Upper Orakzai Agency.
July 14: 24 TTP militants were killed and 34 were injured when PAF fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in Kasha, Srigaray, Khorhi, Mamoonzai and Shakartangi areas of Orakzai Agency.
July 13: At least 100 TTP militants were killed and one soldier was injured in a clash with SFs in Dabori area of Orakzai Agency in FATA.
July 11: At least 22 TTP militants were killed and 10 were injured when PAF fighter jets and helicopter gunships bombed various areas of Upper Orakzai Agency.
June 27: At least 66 TTP militants were killed and another 30 were injured in air strikes and clashes with the SFs in Orakzai Agency.
June 22: 43 TTP militants were killed in clashes with SFs in the Orakzai Agency.
June 21: Militants attacked a Frontier Corps vehicle with three rockets in the Andkhel area of the Agency, killing three Soldiers and injuring another five.
June 8: Six soldiers were killed and eight were injured when TTP militants stormed a checkpoint in Orakzai Agency. A retaliatory strike by the Army left 35 TTP militants dead and another 17 injured.
June 6: The SFs killed 44 TTP militants and injured another 11 in various areas of Upper Orakzai.
June 5: 25 TTP militants were killed and another 22 were injured when SFs, backed by helicopter gunships, pounded militants hideouts in Orakzai Agency.
June 2: At least 33 TTP militants were killed during clashes with SFs in different parts of Orakzai Agency.
Evidently, the militants still posses the wherewithal to take the SFs on.
Although the area of operation in Orakzai is smaller compared to the 2009 Operation Rah-e-Rast (Path to Truth) in Swat (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Operation Rah-i-Nijat in South Waziristan (FATA), the fighting has been bloodier and more intense. 1,200 militants and 90 SFs were killed in Operation Rah-e-Rast; and 589 militants and 79 SFs were killed in Operation Rah-e-Nijat. The military has established a cordon around many of Orakzai’s entry and exit points and the militants, finding their escape cut off, are, in many cases, choosing to fight back with significant assaults on military positions. The military has been retaliating by bombarding purported TTP locations relentlessly, reportedly inflicting heavy casualties on the militants. The Army claims that many of the dead are foreign fighters, including Arabs and Uzbeks.
When Pakistan, on May 31, announced it had defeated militants in Dabori, one of their major extremist bases, some 60 kilometres from Orakzai's main town of Kalaya, it was a far cry from the reality of the volatile Orakzai region. Even at that time, Pakistani military analysts declared that the announcement was based on "miscalculations", as officers thought militants would flee the region after many of their bases were captured. There was a widespread assessment that the announcement itself was no more than an attempt to boost the morale of a public suffering from years of attacks, nearly constant military campaigns and few demonstrable results. Retired General Talat Masood, a military and security analyst, thus noted, "The announcement looks good to the Pakistani public. The public thinks it's an endless thing, especially in Orakzai. So they probably wanted to give the people some relief." Corroborating this assessment, Rahimullah Yusufzai, senior editor and Peshawar Bureau chief of The News observed, "The military operation is not yet over in Orakzai. I think they (the Army) made the announcement of victory in haste."