Re: Pakistan Army launches Massive Swat Operation - 33 militants killed
so whats the update on chitrol, last i read, beardo weirdos had run back into hills like geeder..
now they are talking about fighting until shahdat, well lets give it to these hadd haraam mullahs quickly..
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani troops have launched a counter-offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, pushing them back into forests and mountains, officials and witnesses reported Thursday.
The fighting has left more than 50 rebels dead in two days, according to army accounts, as security forces struck back against sweeping gains made in the scenic Swat Valley by militants loyal to a radical cleric.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said troops Thursday killed 12 militants while clearing trenches and checkposts from a road.
Another eight were killed when security forces launched an attack, Arshad told AFP, saying their mortar positions had been destroyed.
On Wednesday, 33 insurgents were reported killed when the military pounded their positions with helicopter gunships and artillery.
Two soldiers and two civilians died in the unrest, officials said, and a militant leader said three more fighters died overnight.
Insurgent advances in and around Swat have embarrassed the government of President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing Islamic militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3.
He has since ordered the regular army – rather than the locally recruited paramilitary forces – to take the lead in tackling the unrest.
Witnesses said that in Shangla district, militants had disappeared off the streets and moved out, but residents said there was still fighting there late Thursday.
“Militants have fled from streets to forests and their mountain hideouts after the military offensive,” a security official told AFP.
Residents said around 700 to 800 troops had also taken up positions in the Belay Baba area, which had been a militant stronghold a day earlier.
Troops used artillery and mortar fire to push insurgents from another area on one of the main roads leading toward China, a security official said, and also captured a strategic mountain position.
Residents reported ongoing firing at militant bunkers in a number of Swat valley villages as well as intermittent shooting in Shangla.
Troops also attacked areas surrounding the Imam Dheri headquarters of the rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has launched a campaign for imposition of harsh Sharia Islamic law in the valley.
Fazlullah is dubbed Mullah Radio because he runs a pirate FM radio station that calls for a holy war or jihad on government forces.
His deputy Maulana Shah Dauran vowed defiance, saying they would only lay down arms after the government stopped firing and imposed Sharia.
“We are ready for the martyrdom and sacrifice. If operations continue then we would be compelled to launch suicide attacks against troops,” he told the radio.
Dauran said three fighters were “martyred” in Swat overnight.
The militants’ advances of recent weeks had indicated they were branching out into new areas from their traditional bases in the troubled tribal belt that borders Afghanistan