Peshawar, Pakistan-Suicide attack struck two police stations in apparently coordinated attacks Saturday in northwestern Pakistan, killing one and wounding four police officers, authorities said. Elsewhere in the troubled region bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan's army said it killed 30 militants in an airstrike

The violence comes as Pakistan and the U.S. seems to have made progress in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Officials confirmed earlier this week that the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Barad,

was arrested the day before in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, and that several other Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants were captured in a massive effort.

The suicide attacks began Saturday within minutes of each other in Mansehra district, police official Gul Zare said.

Local police chief Khalil Khan died and two officers and two passers-by were wounded,

when an attacker blew himself up inside the police station in Mansehra town, he said. A second suspect fled the scene.

In the second attack, two people stormed a police station about 15 miles (25 km) away in the town of Balakot, trigger calling a shootout that left one attacker dead.

Two policemen were wounded, while the second attacker fled toward the nearby offices.

Islamist militant groups in Pakistan often attack the country's security forces, and is also suspected of being involved in attacks on NATO and U.S. troops over the border in Afghanistan.

But such attacks are relatively rare in Mansehra, about 90 miles (140 km) northwest of the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan dismantled militant training facilities after September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S..

Other major parts of Pakistan's northwest has become militant strongholds, and in some places,

Has the Pakistani military has been pushing two Waging aggressive extremist out.

An army statement said an airstrike Saturday struck a militant hide-out in Shawal mountains in the south Waziristan tribal region after a tip-off that insurgents had hidden there. It said 30 militants were killed but gave no further details.

The military has tried to cope South Waziristan by Pakistani Taliban fighters since October.

The region is remote, dangerous and largely only two outsiders, making independent confirmation of the army's statement is almost impossible.

The United States has used missile attacks on militant targets in South Waziristan and other parts of Pakistan's tribal areas Lawless belt,

where al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and other insurgents are believed to be hidden.

One such attack in North Waziristan tribal region Thursday, apparently targeted Siraj Haqqani, a leading figure in a prominent al Qaeda-linked network, but slew his brother, Mohammed Haqqani, and three assistants instead, intelligence officials and a Taliban commander said. They all talked Wed condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.