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Pakistan army battles Taliban; PM wins support
Mon May 18, 2009 11:04am EDT
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By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani soldiers were locked in heavy fighting with Taliban militants in their Swat bastion on Monday, the army said, as the government won broad support for the offensive from political parties.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said the army would finish the offensive and ensure peace as he sought support from political parties amid growing fears for the wellbeing of more than a million people displaced by the fighting.
The offensive, launched this month as international alarm grew over an intensifying insurgency, was making progress and every effort would be made to help the more than 1 million people displaced by the fighting, he said.
"Fierce clashes are taking places in different areas of Swat," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a briefing.
Twenty-seven militants including three commanders had been killed in the previous 24 hours while three soldiers, including an officer were killed and 17 wounded, Abbas said.
In all, more than 1,000 militants have been killed in the offensive, the government has said, while more than 50 soldiers have been killed, according to the military.
There was no independent confirmation of the government's estimate of militant casualties. Reporters have left Swat and the army is not letting any back into the valley. Communications with residents still there have also been disrupted.
Gilani told an all-parties conference on the fighting soldiers would remain in Swat until peace was ensured and all the displaced people had gone home.
"The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise," Gilani told the conference.
A government spokesman later said all parties supported efforts to rid the country of terrorism, though some had expressed reservations about the use of force.
President Asif Ali Zardari told the Sunday Times Swat was just the beginning and the army would next move against militants in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border.
Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged over the past two years, raising fears for its stability and alarming the United States, which needs Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and bring stability to neighboring Afghanistan.
DURABLE SOLUTION
Despite doubts over Pakistan's alliance with the United States in its campaign against Islamist militants and objections to "fighting America's war," most political parties and many members of the public support the offensive.
But opposition is bound to grow if the plight of the displaced worsens or if many of the civilians still in Swat are killed when the army moves against Taliban entrenched in the valley's main town and other populated centers. Continued...
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