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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Military intensifies fighting in Swat as hundreds flee |
| 2009-05-10 |
| [ADN Kronos] Pakistani jets bombed suspected militant positions in the northwest Swat valley on Friday as hundreds of thousands of people continued to flee the area. The government claimed at least 140 militants had been killed in in the past 24 hours in Swat and threatened to step up its military offensive. Addressing a media conference late Friday, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said security forces would remain in the valley until the government had re-established control. "The army is now engaged in a full-scale operation to eliminate miscreants," Athar Abbas said. "They are on the run and trying to block the exodus of civilians from the area." While it was impossible to confirm the death toll independently, Pakistani security forces were conducting ongoing operations across three districts -- Swat, Buner and Lower Dir -- in northwest Pakistan . The United Nations has warned that the Swat offensive is causing a humanitarian crisis with up to 300,000 already displaced or about to flee the fighting. As jets and helicopters pounded targets in the valley, the UN said it was threatening to become one of the world's biggest displacement crises. Security forces carried out a massive air operation and sent fresh troops into Swat after prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani announced that 'decisive steps would be taken' to address the growing militancy. The government has imposed a night curfew in the troubled region to prevent Taliban fighters from escaping waves of attack helicopters and artillery shells pounded suspected militant hideouts. Athar Abbas said that army was attempting to take out key Taliban leaders in the valley, and soldiers were acting on the orders of the government to 'eliminate' the terrorists. He said that Swat militants had received terrorist training from Al-Qaeda, which has also been funding militants in Waziristan. The humanitarian organisation, Doctors Without Borders, has pulled out of the area saying the fighting has made it too difficult to operate as a neutral body. The organisation's co-ordinator for Pakistan, Brice Delevigne, says it was the only group supporting the hospital in the main town of Mingora. "The problem is from both sides you are suspicious in the sense that constantly you have to convince them that you are an independent neutral organisation, medical organisation," he said. Pakistan has launched at least a dozen operations in the region near the Afghan border in recent years, but most ended inconclusively after widespread destruction and significant civilian deaths. The mountainous region remains a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, foreign governments say. In a televised address late Thursday Gillani said: "I appeal to the people of Pakistan to support the government and army at this crucial time." "We pledge to eliminate the elements who have destroyed the peace and calm of the nation and wanted to take Pakistan hostage at gunpoint." Gillani said the government has allocated close to 12.5 million dollars to help people displaced by the conflict. |
| Posted by:Fred |