Pakistan Battles Militants in Northwest
By VOA News
24 May 2009
Pakistani troops continued their push into the Taliban-held main town in Swat Valley on Sunday.
Military officials say several key points in Mingora are under their control, including an intersection where militants routinely dumped the mutilated bodies of their victims.
The army says at least five suspected militants were killed in street fighting and several others were arrested.
Elsewhere in the northwest, Pakistani aircraft bombed several suspected Taliban targets in the Orakzai tribal region, killing at least 13 people.
The Pakistani army says more than 1,000 militants, and more than 63 soldiers, have been killed since it began the offensive to retake the area.
Pakistani troops launched the operation in Swat Valley after militants violated a peace deal and advanced within 100 kilometers of the capital.
The United Nations says the fighting in northwest Pakistan has caused the greatest displacement of people the world has seen in two decades, with nearly two million people on the run.
In other news, Pakistani police are searching for the gunmen who kidnapped a French tourist in a region bordering Afghanistan and Iran on Saturday.
Police in the southwestern province of Baluchistan say the man was taken from a group that included women and children and that other tourists were not harmed.
Police say militants including ethnic Baluch separatists are active in the region.
The French foreign ministry issued a statement saying its crisis center and embassy have been mobilized to resolve the situation.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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