Paksitan troops attack Taliban

The Australian:

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 overnight.

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 killed 12 militants overnight while clearing trenches and checkposts from a road.

Another eight were killed when security forces launched an attack, Maj-Gen Arshad said, saying their mortar positions had been destroyed.

Yesterday, 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 overnight.

"Militants have fled from streets to forests and their mountain hideouts after the military offensive," a security official said.

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 mortars 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.

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This is over due action. I had not seen reports suggesting that the poorly performing troops were part of a locally recruited paramilitary force, but it probably explains their failure in part. It does not explain the slow reaction of the regular army or the deal which freed Taliban leaders. Musharraf needs to demonstrate that he can be a competent leader to deal with the bad guys if he is going to get much breathing room with his political emergency.