More than 50 militants and six soldiers were killed in clashes between government forces and Taliban who escaped the brunt of a Pakistani offensive in the northwest, officials said. The high number of reported casualties, which are impossible to confirm, marked a return to some of the deadliest days of the northwest operation which Pakistan commanders say has effectively defeated Taliban opposition. A two-day operation on Sunday and Monday targeted militants hiding in the village of Maidan in Lower Dir, which along with Buner and Swat made up the three districts targeted in the summer assault launched under US pressure. 'The aim of the operation was to eliminate the militants, who were hiding in Maidan after fleeing the Swat operation,' a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Major Fazal-ul-Rehman, told selfnews. More than 50 militants and three soldiers were killed, and troops destroyed a large quantity of arms and ammunition, he said. Although Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said earlier this month that the military had 'eliminated' extremists, deadly skirmishes have continued in and around the Swat valley, where the Taliban focused a two-year rebellion. The military meanwhile said six militants and three soldiers, including a junior officer, were killed during search operations in different parts of Swat valley during the last 24 hours. Security forces also discovered '10 bodies of terrorists' inside a cave in the village of Kalagai Banda in Swat. In Buner, the paramilitary said separately that two militants were killed and a car rigged with explosives destroyed during a search operation. The army launched the offensive in late April in Buner and Lower Dir, before besieging militants in Swat, whose mountains and green valleys were a favoured tourist destination before a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law. Pakistan says around 1,800 militants and more than 163 security personnel have been killed, but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently. Fighting between government forces and Taliban has forced 1.9 million people to flee homes in the northwest since last year, although the authorities last week started busing back families to Swat and Buner. When asked by selfnews about the high numbers of casualties, which mirrored the number announced during some of the worst days of the offensive, Pakistan's chief military spokesman denied any surge in the fighting. 'There is only a search and clearance operation going on in Swat and other districts,' Major General Athar Abbas told selfnews. 'The military is currently carrying out operations against those militants hiding in some of the villages and mountains,' he added. 