MINGORA: Pakistani forces killed 23 militants early on Tuesday in fighting that erupted after insurgents fired on troops during a search operation in the country's northwest, police and intelligence officials said. The search was launched after a suicide bomb attack on a paramilitary fort in Lower Dir district, where troops killed hundreds of militants in an offensive last year. “The fighting began when miscreants opened fire on troops searching the area after reports of militant movement there,” Dir's top police chief, Mumtaz Zireen, told Reuters.