Blitz on Taliban forces kills dozens

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.

The army began taking the fight to militants entrenched in both the Swat Valley and in Buner, just 95 kilometres from the capital, as Pakistan’s leader prepared to hear demands from US president Barack Obama for forceful action from a struggling ally. The latest actions will please Washington, which is urging Pakistan to crack down on militants blamed for rising violence at home and in Afghanistan.

Since fighting broke out on Tuesday, thousands of men, women and children have fled Swat’s main town of Mingora and surrounding districts, fearing an imminent major military operation. The government said it believes refugee numbers could reach 500,000.

“It is an all-out war there. Rockets are landing everywhere,” said Laiq Zada, 33, who fled the valley and is in a government-run tent camp out of the danger zone. “We have with us the clothes on our bodies and a hope in the house of God. Nothing else.”

The clashes followed the collapse of a three-month truce in Swat that was widely criticised in the West as a surrender to the militants who had fought the army to a standstill in two years of clashes that saw hundreds of civilian casualties.

It is uncertain whether the Pakistani public has the stomach for a long battle. The truce gave militants time to rest and reinforce their positions and any operation would involve fierce fighting in urban areas and would likely cause significant civilian casualties and property damage.

The Swat Taliban are estimated to have up to 7,000 fighters against some 15,000 troops who until recently had been confined to their barracks under the truce.

The military said yesterday’s offensive killed about 35 militants positioned near emerald mines in the Swat Valley and 27 in neighbouring Buner, where troops have halted a Taliban push toward the capital Islamabad.

The Taliban killed two soldiers with a roadside bomb and two more in an assault on a power plant near Mingora, a military statement said.

“Armed militants have come down from their hide-outs into the cities and have occupied civil houses and government buildings” as well as planting bombs to target both troops and civilians, it said.

The militant casualty figures could not be verified independently, and there was no official word on civilian deaths or injuries.

An intelligence official said helicopters and mortar teams were pounding militant positions in Mingora and other parts of Swat.

“The situation is very tense there. Taliban are present at the homes of local residents. They are also present at strategic positions. They are using light weapons to ambush troops,” said the official.

Army spokesman Major Genera Athar Abbas declined to say whether the events heralded the start of major operations.

In recent days, however, there have been signs the mood toward the Taliban is changing. Many politicians, commentators and religious leaders now say the movement’s true nature was exposed by its refusal to go along with the peace deal despite the government’s best efforts.