Pakistani troops battling the Taliban have captured several points in the Swat Valley’s main town, the army said yesterday, including a spot nicknamed “bloody intersection” because militants routinely dumped the mutilated bodies of their victims there.
Elsewhere in the northwest, helicopter gunships pounded alleged militant hide-outs in a tribal region, killing at least 18 people, while police said they had captured an important militant commander and six other Taliban fighters.
The operation in Swat has strong support from Washington and retaking Mingora, the valley’s main commercial hub and urban center, is considered critical to its success.
A military statement yesterday said forces moving from street to street secured eight crossings while encountering at least 12 roadside bombs. One secured spot is Green Chowk, the “bloody intersection.”
Five suspected militants were killed in various parts of Mingora while 14 others were arrested, the army said. It has said 10,000 to 20,000 residents are still stranded in the town, which normally has a population of at least 375,000.
Officials have downplayed reports that the army would soon expand the offensive to the lawless, semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. However, violence has continued to flare in those areas.
Yesterday morning in the Orakzai tribal region, helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant targets in multiple locations, including a religious school, local government official Mohammad Yasin said.
At least six civilians were among the 18 dead, he said, adding that the targeted spots were strongholds of Hakeemullah Mehsud, a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Hundreds fled the area amid the fighting, he said.
Also yesterday, police in nearby Charsadda district said they caught seven Taliban militants during a raid on a religious school. They included Qari Ihsanullah, a Taliban commander suspected in attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Charsadda police Chief Riaz Khan said.
The military says about 1,100 suspected insurgents have died so far in the monthlong offensive in Swat and neighboring districts. It has not given any tally of civilian deaths, and it’s unclear how it is separating regular citizens killed from militants.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 hard-core insurgent fighters remain in Swat, the army says.
FRENCH TOURIST
Meanwhile, Pakistani police hunted yesterday for a French tourist kidnapped in the country’s restive southwest, but an officer said they still did not know who was behind the abduction.
Gunmen on Saturday snatched the 41-year-old man from a group of French nationals who were traveling in Baluchistan Province, on the border with Afghanistan and Iran.
He was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate.
“We don’t know who the kidnappers are, what their motive is. We have not yet received any demand. We have really no idea about the kidnappers,” an official said.
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