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MINGORA/BATKHELA The Swat offensive intensified on Thursday with the army bringing in gunship helicopters and jet fighters to target militant hideouts in the districts Khwazakhela tehsil. Separately, army chief General Ashfaq Kayani told his top commanders the army was fully aware of the gravity of the internal threat and would employ requisite resources to ensure a decisive ascendancy over the militants, the military said.
The government is set to officially announce the launch of a military operation in the troubled district, sources told DawnNews on Thursday.
Nine soldiers were killed, seven in one ambush, during clashes over the past 24 hours in the northwestern district, Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Athar Abbas said Thursday.
'In 24 hours, we lost nine soldiers and about 10 of them (were) injured,' Athar Abbas told AFP.
Seven of the soldiers were killed when militants ambushed a convoy at the entrance to Mingora, the main town in Swat.
'The troop carrier was coming and there were seven soldiers killed in that. Two soldiers were killed somewhere in the valley north of Matta,' Abbas said.
Taliban had also besieged the Matta police station, and police and militants subsequently exchanged fire, DawnNews reported.
Tens of thousands of Swats residents have started streaming out of the valley after authorities relaxed the curfew till 0600 p.m. The curfew in Khawazakhela however remains in tact.
Swats top administrator, Khushal Khan, said people were not being advised to leave but authorities were helping those who wanted to go.
'There are troops convoys coming and once that is over, public transport will be able come into the town. In the meantime, we are extending whatever help possible to people leaving,' he said.
In the adjoining Buner district, security forces continued their offensive against militants in Sultanwas and Pir Baba where the militants were offering stiff resistance.
Meanwhile, in the Lower Dir districts Maidan area, intense clashes between militants and security forces continued as 15 troops went missing.
A militant commander in Maidan, Mifthahuddin, talking to DawnNews, claimed that they had killed at least 12 security personnel in Gumbar and their bodies were lying in the bazaar.
Security officials and independent sources are yet to confirm the deaths of the security personnel but have confirmed that a fierce gun battle had erupted between militants and security forces in Gumbar and casualties were feared.
However, a son of cleric Sufi Mohammad, who brokered the Swat peace deal, was killed when an artillery shell hit his house in the district, a spokesman for the cleric said.
Earlier, on Wednesday, 47 militants, 15 security personnel and 36 non-combatants were killed and several others wounded in fierce clashes and explosions in the Swat valley and other areas of the Malakand region.
Sources said security forces killed 30 militants near emerald mines and 15 others in Takhtaband area, in the outskirts of Mingora. The ground forces entered from Fizaghat side and recaptured the mines after helicopter gunships and artillery shelled the area.
Thirty-five civilians were reportedly killed either in crossfire between troops and militants and artillery fire or for violating curfew in different areas of Swat when a fresh military offensive was launched. Military sources admitted civilian deaths but did not confirm the number of casualties.
Three security personnel were killed and four others were injured in a roadside blast near Barikot. Three personnel were killed and three injured when militants attacked an FC camp in Kanju.
Sources said the militants still had control over Mingora town on Wednesday. They were patrolling streets and took positions on rooftops. They also occupied local people's homes and laid mines in Mingora.
A number of bank branches were looted in Mingora and then set on fire.
Helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in emerald mines, Mingora Bazaar, Takhtaband and Engaro Dheri, in the outskirts of Mingora. The hideouts in Koza Banda and Bar Banda were also targeted in Kabal tehsil.
The sources on Wednesday said fighting was also going on in Manglawar, Charbagh, Khwazakhela and Bahrain.
Sources said nine soldiers, two militants and one civilian were killed in roadside explosions and exchange of fire in different areas of Malakand on Tuesday.
Six soldiers were killed and three others wounded when a remote-controlled bomb went off near Thana Bypass road, near Chakdara, when the military convoy was on its way to Swat district.
Then militants opened fire on the convoy, triggering an exchange of fire. Two militants were killed and a woman Mahar Pari, wife of Sher Afzal of Bugar Cham, was injured when a stray bullet hit her.
The deceased soldiers included Tawqir, Tahir, Rashid, Nisar, Aimal Qasim and conductor Bilal while the injured were identified as Shaukat, Yousaf, Nisar and Shakoor.
The bodies and the injured were shifted to Chakdara Fort housed by Chitral Scouts. Later the bodies were flown by helicopters and the injured soldiers were admitted to a hospital.
Another three soldiers were killed when three improvised explosive devices exploded one after another along the GT Road, near FG Public School in Batkhela at 0800 a.m. when the military convoy was passing through the area.
Security personnel fired back and the gunbattle lasted an hour.
The convoy was again attacked by three miscreants from the hills near Amandara, the headquarters of Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi, at 12 noon.
Later helicopter gunships shelled the surrounding areas, including Gharibabad and Bar Batkhela, killing one civilian and injuring another.
