ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif on Friday confirmed nine death sentences awarded by military courts over a series of attacks that killed dozens of security officials and civilians in recent years, the military said.

In a statement, the military described the nine condemned men as "hardcore terrorists."

The men included an al-Qaida activist and a Pakistani Taliban member, Muhammad Ghauri, who was convicted of involvement in the 2009 attack on a mosque in the city of Rawalpindi that killed 38 worshippers, it said.

Pakistan has executed nearly 330 people in less than a year, since lifting a 2008 moratorium on the death penalty. The lifting of the moratorium was meant to be part of a crackdown on Islamic militants, but most of those executed have been convicted of criminal offenses.