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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistani Forces Kill 94 Militants in 5-Day Swat Valley Battle |
| 2008-08-05 |
| Pakistan's security forces killed as many as 94 militants in five days of fighting in the northwestern Swat Valley after a two-month cease-fire broke down, the military said. ``A decisive operation has been launched that will continue till the complete elimination of militants from Swat,'' Brigadier Zia Anjum Bodla told reporters yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Fourteen security personnel and 20 civilians were also killed in the fighting, he said. Security forces began fighting supporters of Maulana Fazlullah, a local pro-Taliban cleric, in Swat last year. The provincial government agreed in May to withdraw soldiers and allow Islamic law in the valley, where militants oppose Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. Local Taliban fighters repeatedly violated the accord by burning schools for girls and abducting and killing members of the security forces, APP cited Bodla as saying. The clashes began after militants on July 29 kidnapped 25 security personnel from a post managed by police and paramilitary forces in the town of Deolai. Swat Valley, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the nation's capital, Islamabad, was once a popular tourist destination. In June, militants set fire to a government-owned hotel in the area's Malam Jabba ski resort. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's government says it is tackling Islamic extremism using a strategy of negotiation, economic and political development and the selective use of military force in an effort to cut terrorist attacks that killed more than 2,000 people in Pakistan last year. Pakistani government leaders agreed July 23 to increase investment in education and employment in tribal areas to dampen support for militants. The U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization say Pakistan's policy of holding talks with militants in the tribal areas has led to increased attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in neighboring Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 lets see them double it up this week... plenty where they came from I'm sure |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2008-08-05 18:32 |