Pakistani Army retakes largest town in Swat Valley
Taliban shift tactics, bomb sites in cities
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Although the Pakistani military claimed victory in a key Taliban stronghold in the beleaguered Swat Valley yesterday, the government found itself hunkering down against a new battlefront - a bombing campaign in the country's cities.
Pakistani troops have complete control over Mingora, with clashes lingering only on the city's outskirts, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said at a briefing.
Only a week ago, the military said it was expecting a long, hard-fought battle with Taliban fighters who had fortified themselves in the northwestern city's hotels and buildings. It now appears that, after initially putting up stiff resistance, many militants chose to flee.
"When they realized that they were being encircled and the noose was tightening, they decided not to give a pitched battle," Abbas said.
But the militants might have decided to fight another way: seeding fear through well-coordinated bombing attacks.
Bombers struck in three Pakistani cities last week. On Wednesday in Lahore, gunmen attacked a building housing local police and Pakistani intelligence agents before detonating explosives in a van, killing 27 people.
A day later, attackers set off bombs on motorcycles parked outside busy markets in Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, and attacked police with gunfire. At least six people were killed in that attack and more than 50 injured. That night, suicide bomb attacks killed four police officers on the outskirts of Peshawar and two people in the northwest city of Dera Ismail Khan.
As a result, security was tightened in Islamabad, the capital, and other major cities. In Peshawar, a pall of fear hung over the city as Pakistanis avoided mosques and bazaars. Schools and colleges were shut down, and extra police patrolled the streets.
Pakistan launched the offensive to rid Swat Valley of the Taliban about a month ago. Troops have retaken large sections of Swat once controlled by the Taliban, but the offensive also has resulted in a massive exodus of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting.
The offensive has the support of the Obama administration, which had grown increasingly concerned about the Taliban's expanding control over northwest Pakistan. Earlier this spring, the Taliban had extended their reach into the Buner district outside Swat, only 60 miles from Islamabad.
Yesterday, military officials said the leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, remained at large.
Pakistani officials have acknowledged they cannot stop Taliban fighters from escaping the fighting. Authorities say fleeing Taliban fighters have been shaving off their beards and losing themselves among the masses of refugees streaming into tent camps set up near Mardan, Peshawar, Karachi, and Islamabad.
Since the military offensive to oust the Taliban out of Swat and surrounding regions began, more than 1,200 militants have been killed and 79 others have been captured, Abbas said. He added that 81 Pakistani troops have died in the fighting and did not release any figures on civilian casualties.
The military's claims about the offensive cannot be verified because the government greatly restricts journalists from entering the conflict zone.
