THOUSANDS of terrified Pakistanis dodged Taliban roadblocks to flee fighting yesterday between the army and insurgents in a northwestern valley, streaming into refugee camps and crowding hospitals with their fatigued and hungry children.

HELICOPTER gunships and mortar teams pounded militant strongholds yesterday, killing dozens outside emerald mines, the military said, as Taliban reinforcements poured down from their mountain hide-outs and seized homes and government buildings.

A huge battle between the Taliban and Pakistani troops erupted in the Swat valley today.

More than 60 Taliban were killed in clashes with the Pakistan army around the hotly contested Swat valley today, security services said.

Up to 500,000 people could be forced to flee the Swat valley fighting between Taliban forces and the Pakistan army, the country's government warned today.

A suicide car bomber killed four security forces and wounded passing schoolchildren today in Pakistan’s volatile northwest, where the government is under pressure from Washington to crack down on militants.

CLASHES in a north-western region of Pakistan covered by an increasingly fragile peace pact killed seven militants and one soldier yesterday, authorities said, adding to strains on an agreement seen in the West as a capitulation to extremists.

PAKISTAN’s military yesterday accused the Taliban of “gross violation” of a peace accord covering a large segment of its northwest after several acts of violence over the weekend.

Scores of militants attacked a Pakistani security post near the Afghan border today, triggering a battle that left 18 fighters dead and cast doubt on claims by Pakistan’s army to have regained control of a critical region.

PAKISTANI helicopter gunships and ground troops pounded Taliban fighters yesterday, killing up to 60 militants and destroying a dozen would-be suicide bombers in fierce fighting, the army said.

PAKISTANI airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban fighters in a fierce struggle to drive them from a district near the capital, while the militants took over police stations and kidnapped more than 50 security forces, the army said.

The Taliban today dismissed a peace deal with the Pakistani government as “worthless”.

Pakistan sent helicopter gunships and troops to attack Taliban militants in a district covered by a peace deal after strong US pressure on the nuclear-armed nation to confront insurgents advancing in its northwest.

A Pakistani official said Taliban militants have completed their pullback from a northwestern district they seized earlier this month.

A Pakistani leader issued a "final" appeal to Taliban militants to retreat to their Swat Valley stronghold today and salvage a peace deal that has been roundly criticised in the West.

Taliban militants extended their grip in north-western Pakistan, pushing out from a valley where the government has agreed to impose Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as 60 miles from the capital.

A suicide bomber pretending to need help with his car killed 34 people in north-west Pakistan as the Marriott hotel in Islamabad partially reopened three months after a brazen truck bombing left 54 dead.

A suicide bomber pretending to need help with his car killed 26 people in north-west Pakistan today, officials said, underscoring concerns that militant violence near the Afghan border could escalate now that Pakistan is shifting troops away from the region toward India.