ISLAMABAD (AP) – Security forces fighting their way through a mountainous Taliban stronghold killed at least seven militants Sunday and injured several more, officials said, while Pakistan’s foreign minister said the offensive in tribal South Waziristan should finish sooner than originally expected.

As part of the government’s ramping up of its fight against the militants, it will offer bounties of up to 50,000,000 rupees ($600,000) for each of the top three Taliban leaders, according to an official advertisement to be published Monday in Pakistani newspapers and obtained by The Associated Press.

But the recent successes of the campaign in South Waziristan – and the optimism of Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi that it would soon achieve its objectives – were offset by a string of anti-government attacks in other tribal regions, where militants kidnapped and killed a prominent pro-government activist and blew up a girls’ school.

The kidnapping occurred Saturday night in the town of Khar, the largest in the Bajur tribal region, when a group of about 60 militants stormed the house of Jahangir Khan, said Adalat Khan, a town official.