At least 15 militants and two soldiers have been killed in two separate gun battles in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, according to officials. 

The shootout happened just northwest of the capital Islamabad. The latest gunfight comes after 130 people were killed nationwide in the month of February.

The two raids took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Swabi district, which is just 100 km northwest of Islamabad and far from the border tribal areas that have been the main battlefront during the insurgency.

No details regarding the second shootout have been released as of yet, but the incident came to light after police and security forces brought 10 bullet riddled bodies to a local hospital.

The senior security official said "They were militants and killed during an intelligence based operation."

Separately, the military said that five Taliban militants who had been sentenced to death were executed on Wednesday at a prison in northwestern garrison town of Kohat.

The attacks, most of which were claimed by the Islamic State group or the Pakistani Taliban, dented optimism after the country appeared to be making strong gains in its decade-and-a-half long war on militancy.