KHAR, Pakistan, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - At least 20 Al-Qaeda linked militants, eight of them foreigners, were killed when Pakistani helicopter gunships hit rebel hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The casualties occurred on Wednesday in the Bajaur region, where Pakistani troops launched a major offensive against Islamic militants in August.

'Twelve local and eight foreign militants including their important commanders were killed in the successful airstrike,' a security official told AFP.

'The action was taken after observing militants' movements in Badan, the village of Taliban leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad,' the official added.

Mohammad is the deputy of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, whom Pakistan's previous government accused of of masterminding the slaying of former premier Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.

A government official, Mohammad Jamil Khan, earlier said that 12 militants, including two foreigners were killed by helicopter gunships in the Badan area.

He did not disclose the nationality of the two 'foreigners,' a term used by Pakistan authorities for Al-Qaeda militants.

The Pakistani military says more than 1,000 rebel fighters have been killed since it launched its offensive in Bajaur in early August, including Al-Qaeda's operational commander in the region, Egyptian Abu Saeed Al-Masri.

Pakistan's tribal regions have been wracked by violence since thousands of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels sneaked into the country after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Violence linked to Pakistan's role in the 'war on terror' has claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people in suicide and bomb attacks in the past year.