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Pakistan attacks Taliban in Swat
Wed May 6, 2009 2:44am EDT
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By Junaid Khan
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani forces attacked Taliban fighters in the Swat valley with artillery and helicopters on Wednesday after the United States called on the government to show its commitment to fighting militancy.
Expanding Taliban influence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has spread alarm at home and abroad and will be a core issue when U.S. President Barack Obama meets his Afghani and Pakistani counterparts in Washington later on Wednesday.
A February peace pact aimed at ending Taliban violence in Swat is in tatters and thousands of people fled from Mingora, the region's main town, on Tuesday after a government official said fighting was expected.
The militants have captured several important government buildings in the town, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, and took positions on rooftops.
While a curfew kept people off the streets, government forces attacked in and around the town, including at an emerald mine the Taliban have taken over.
"Security forces have engaged militants' positions at an emerald mine and helicopter gunships are also being used to flush militants out of Mingora," said a military spokesman.
A military official who declined to be named brushed off speculation the clashes signaled an imminent major offensive in Swat but residents said they saw troops being trucked in and a government official also said reinforcements were arriving.
Authorities estimate 500,000 people could flee from the valley, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Tuesday.
A similar number has already fled fighting in different parts of the northwest since August, putting an extra burden on an economy propped up by a $7.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.
"RUNNING OUT OF FOOD"
President Asif Ali Zardari, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's widower, is due to meet Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai for talks on the growing militant threat in the region.
Increasing violence and the spread of the Taliban have raised doubts about the ability of the civilian government elected last year to face up to the militants.
"Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders," Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in congressional testimony on Tuesday.
Pakistani action against militant enclaves on the Afghan border is vital to efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.
Some residents of Mingora said they faced dwindling supplies of food and were desperate to get out. Continued...
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