Taliban on the run: Pak. army

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Saturday (AFP) - A full-scale military offensive has forced the Taliban to be “on the run” in Pakistan's northwest, but militants are stopping civilians leaving the conflict zone, the army said on Saturday.

Warplanes pounded rebel hideouts in the Swat valley, an ex-ski resort where up to 15,000 security forces have been deployed with orders to crush extremists in an escalating conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Asif Ali Zardari

“They are on the run,” the army said in a statement, without making clear exactly how much progress it had made in driving militants from their positions. It added Taliban fighters were “trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by preventing their departure through coercion, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), road blocked with trees and even taking them hostage”.

The military said on Friday an air and ground offensive to crush the Taliban in the northwest killed more than 140 militants. It was impossible to confirm the death toll independently, given ongoing operations across three districts which began late last month when the hardline insurgents advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad.

Meanwhile, fresh troops were entering the Malakand district which neighbours Swat valley, a local military official told AFP. People fleeing the area, however, have accused the military of also killing civilians in the fierce bombardment.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who is on a state visit to the United States, has pledged to eliminate the Taliban. “This is an offensive, this is war. If they kill our soldiers, then we do the same,” Zardari told PBS public television Friday, during a visit to Washington.

Pressed on whether Pakistan's stated goal of “eliminating” militants meant killing them, Zardari replied: “Eliminate means exactly what it means.” The UN refugee agency has warned up to one million people have been displaced in northwest Pakistan, with tens of thousands streaming out of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat, registering in camps or sheltering with families.

The government has said it was bracing to cope with half a million people displaced by the fighting.He said the armed forces had been called on “to eliminate the militants and terrorists” to restore the “honour and dignity of our homeland.”