Pakistani helicopter gunships and war planes hit Taliban positions in the militants’ Swat valley bastion yesterday, but a curfew prevented civilians from fleeing the fighting.
The struggle in the northwestern valley 130km from Islamabad has become a test of Pakistan’s resolve to fight a growing Taliban insurgency that has alarmed the US and other Western countries.
The military said up to 55 militants were killed in the day’s clashes and four soldiers were wounded. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
PHOTO: AP
Fighting had already picked up earlier in the week, triggering a civilian exodus from the battle zones in recent days, but concerns are growing about the fate of those still trapped and unable to move because of a curfew.
“We are feeling so helpless, we want to go but can’t as there is a curfew,” Sallahudin Khan said by telephone from Mingora, Swat’s main town.
“We tried to leave yesterday after authorities relaxed the curfew for a few hours, but couldn’t as the main road leading out of Mingora was literally jammed with the flood of fleeing people,” he said as gunship fire boomed in the background.
Helicopters and warplanes targeted militant hideouts in Mingora and other areas in Swat, military officials said. Militants fired rockets at an army base in Mingora.
The UN refugee agency has said a “massive displacement” is underway. Citing provincial government estimates, it said on Friday up to 200,000 people had left their homes over recent days, with a further 300,000 on the move or about to move.
They join 555,000 people displaced from other areas because of fighting since August, the agency said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told a news conference the government would seek international help for the displaced people.
He also said the military would do its best to avoid hurting civilians.
“This is not a normal war. This is a guerrilla war. But it is our resolve, it is the resolve of the army, that there should be minimum collateral damage,” he said.
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