An airstrike by Pakistan's military killed as many as 75 civilians in northwestern Pakistan over the weekend, according to a government official and villagers from the area. A military official confirmed some civilian deaths, but said the toll had been far lower. The military contends that the Saturday bombing, in the remote Tirah Valley area near the border with Afghanistan, was aimed at bunkers and hide-outs that militants had made there. The military has been conducting operations against militants in nearby areas, including the Orakzai tribal region, and many had fled into the valley to take shelter, the military official said. Villagers, for their part, said they had built the bunkers to defend against militants. A second military official said that the military was expected to issue its own version of the event later. The death toll is also in dispute. The military official said the number of the dead was 'very few,' and added that at least 30 militants had also been killed in the airstrike. But villagers as well as a government official said as many as 75 civilians may have been killed. If that is true, it would be the worst civilian casualty toll inflicted by the military since 2003, when Pakistan began operations against militants in its western border region. In the early years, public opinion was strongly against the operations, but in the past year it has swung firmly behind military action. The deaths, which were beginning to come to light only on Tuesday, did not seem to be inciting much public outrage beyond the Khyber tribal region, where the valley . Still, the episode was a particularly bad blunder, as the tribe in the area, the Afridi Kukikhel, had vigorously resisted the militants. 'We never supported the Taliban,' said Kashmalu Khan Afridi, a man from the village of Sravela, where the strike hit. 'We still don't know why we were bombed.' Afridi, who had a broken leg, said that he had lost 11 relatives. He was incredulous about what had happened. 'I know these planes have sophisticated computers,' he said. 'They can't miss their target.' A senior government official speculated that the planes missed their target by at least 600 yards, either because of wrong coordinates, or haze caused by snow in the area. In a direct, if belated, acknowledgment of the deaths, the local administration in Khyber said it would pay $100,000 to the victims' families, and $250 for those who were injured.A local administrator offered regret and condolences while distributing the payments. 