US envoy praises Pakistan's progress against Taliban

President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan has praised the country’s “very significant” progress in taking back key territory from the Taliban and promised more weapons for the fight against extremists close to the Afghan border.

Richard Holbrooke began an official visit today, his first since the reported death of the militants’ leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a CIA missile strike on August 5.

Heavy rain forced Mr Holbrooke to postpone a trip to the north-western Swat Valley, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have begun to return after the military declared in July that it had ended Taliban control of the area, a US Embassy official said.

Earlier today, residents in Swat reported finding 18 bullet-ridden bodies lying in the streets, some of them believed to be those of militants loyal to the local Taliban chief.

Mr Holbrooke said yesterday that the Pakistani military’s success in Swat was a sign of progress, along with the apparent death of Mehsud, which he described as a serious blow to the militants.

“I cannot tell whether the Taliban have been destroyed or dispersed as a result of this operation until I go myself,” he said. “But one thing that is quite obvious is that security forces regained Swat and Buner from the Taliban, which itself is very significant.”

Washington has reportedly been anxious for Pakistan to capitalise on the momentum by launching a ground offensive in the Taliban-controlled tribal areas west of Swat – including Mehsud’s stronghold of Waziristan. However, Mr Holbrooke said the timing was up to the Pakistani military, which has been launching aerial assaults against militant bases near the border.

“It is not for the US to decide. It would be the decision of the Pakistan government as to when and how to go against the terrorists in Waziristan,” he said.

The Taliban takeover of Swat – a scenic alpine enclave that once boasted Pakistan’s only ski resort – had become a symbol of the extremists’ expansion in the nuclear-armed, mostly Muslim country that is home to 175 million people.

The government’s various peace deals with militants in Swat and elsewhere had frustrated Washington, but three months ago, the army launched its largest offensive in years after the Swat militants broke a peace agreement and advanced into Buner district, just 100kms from the capital Islamabad.

Mr Holbrooke said the US planned to provide more helicopters and other equipment such as night-vision goggles to the Pakistani military to aid the fight, as well as give economic help for the cash-strapped government. He also said that Pakistan’s shifting of its military focus from its eastern border near India westward to its border with Afghanistan was a positive sign.

Pakistani forces have been winding down their three-month offensive in Swat but still face pockets of militant resistance and violence. Hundreds of thousands of the roughly two million people who fled during the military offensive have been returning amid tight security.

Residents in different areas of Swat woke up today to find a total of 18 bodies lying in the streets.

One body was in the main town of Mingora, seven were in Kanju town and the rest were in four other villages. Local police would not comment on the bodies, but residents said they recognised some of the men as militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah – a notorious Taliban leader whose thousands of followers are blamed for the violence.

Major Nasir Khan of the Pakistan army’s Swat media centre said the military had nothing to do with the deaths and suggested that local residents who suffered under the Taliban’s harsh rule – in which they banned music, burned down girls’ schools and killed anyone who resisted their harsh interpretation of Islamic law - could be taking revenge.

“It could be outcome of personal enmities in those areas,” he said.

Also today, a government statement said that a group of 41 militants in the Lower Dir district, west of Swat, had surrendered to the government. The announcement came after Interior Minister Rehman Malik urged Taliban followers on Friday to defect and “say goodbye to terrorism and start a new life”.

The call was seen as a sign the government is seeking to exploit any potential weaknesses in the militant movement following Mehsud’s reported death.

A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Swat yesterday, killing at least five people. It was the first suicide attack there since July, when the military declared it had regained control of the valley.

Pakistan has said that troops will remain in Swat until the fighters of Fazlullah are eliminated.

Although the military says it has killed or captured a number of Fazlullah’s commanders, the leader himself has evaded capture.