Pakistani troops battle Taliban for Swat Valley city

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The battle for the critical Swat Valley city of Mingora began yesterday as Pakistani troops waged fierce street combat with Taliban militants and began the most difficult test yet in the monthlong offensive to regain much of northwest Pakistan from insurgents.

Pakistani security forces so far have been able to root out Taliban fighters from regions surrounding the Swat Valley, as well as mountain ridges and towns within the region.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, military spokesman Athar Abbas said that 1,095 militants had been killed during the offensive and 29 captured. The death toll could not be verified independently.

Mingora, however, poses a severe challenge for Pakistani troops, who face Taliban fighters deeply embedded in an urban environment and reliant on mines, fortifications and hidden weapons caches to fend off the offensive. The fight also will be complicated by the presence of as many as 20,000 civilians who remained behind after the rest of the city's population of 375,000 fled.

A heavy civilian toll could wither support for the offensive, which so far has won backing within large segments of the population despite the massive humanitarian crisis. Nearly two million Pakistanis have been displaced during the offensive and have sought shelter either in tent camps outside the conflict zone or in the homes of relatives or friends.

In announcing the start of the fighting in Mingora, Abbas said soldiers had driven Taliban fighters out of sections of the city and surrounding areas and had discovered three caves that the Taliban used to hide ammunition and rations.

"The clearance of Mingora has commenced," Abbas said. "The pace of the operation will be painfully slow. So keep patient. But the operation has started and, God willing, we are going to take it to the logical conclusion."

Abbas said that elsewhere in Swat, security forces continued to retake Taliban strongholds. Pakistani troops have secured the town of Matta, where an extensive network of Taliban tunnels was found, and have begun to push Taliban fighters out of the Swat Valley town of Peochar. Taliban militants have been fleeing the Peochar area in small groups, Abbas said.

Authorities largely have barred journalists from Swat, making it difficult to verify the military's statements about the offensive. And if neighboring Afghanistan is any guide, Taliban fighters often have retreated in the face of army campaigns, only to return, or create new strongholds elsewhere.

It remains to be seen whether the gains made by Pakistani troops in Swat and surrounding regions lead to an expansion of the offensive against Taliban militants in the country's volatile tribal areas, along the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, said that the Waziristan region, where the Taliban has established a stronghold, could be the next target.