Pakistan Troops Continue Assault on Taliban Near Swat Valley

Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships continued their assault on Taliban positions near the troubled Swat valley this morning, the army said, bringing the death toll from two days of fighting to nearly 50.

The anti-Taliban drive in Lower Dir, a previously peaceful area wedged between Swat and the Afghan border, is being seen as an attempt by the Pakistani government to assert its authority following a barrage of stinging criticism from US officials who worry that large chunks of the nuclear-armed nation are falling into extremist hands.

Thousands of people fled their homes in Dir on foot this morning, many with just a few hours' notice. Television footage showed burka-clad women and young children streaming through wheat fields as helicopters swarmed overhead.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said 26 Taliban fighters were killed on Sunday and "about 20" by lunchtime Monday, although the latter figure was provisional. Two paramilitary soldiers died and four were injured in exchanges of fire, he said.

"The operation is going smoothly," he said, adding that western fears of Islamabad falling to the Taliban were "alarmist".

On Sunday the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, told Fox News that she couldn't "even contemplate" a scenario in which Pakistan's nuclear warheads were at risk.

Western fears peaked last week when the Taliban rampaged through Buner, a district 60 miles north-west of Islamabad. In response to public outrage Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah pulled some fighters out of Buner over the weekend but left others in place, according to residents.

The Dir operation places immense strain on a controversial peace deal signed by the provincial government and Taliban leaders in Swat last February. This morning senior government officials insisted the agreement was intact.

But this morning Sufi Muhammad, a 78-year-old jihadi fighter who helped negotiate the February accord, said he was suspending further talks until the army offensive was over.

Under the deal the Taliban were supposed to renounce violence in exchange for the implementation of Sharia law in Malakand division, a vast area that covers one-third of the frontier province. Instead the militants used the ceasefire to send fighters from Swat into neighbouring districts such as Dir and Buner.

The Dir offensive came hours after Taliban fighters blocked a military convoy in Swat. On Saturday night 12 children died in Dir after they mistook a large bomb for a toy.

On Sunday the interior minister, Rehman Malik, called on the Taliban to disarm entirely or face fresh action.

"We have to give [the deal] a try. But if peace does not prevail, and the writ of the government continues to be challenged, then we will have to take action," he said.

The Swat Taliban remain defiant. Overnight the militants seized control of a telephone exchange in Bahrain, a village in the upper Swat valley.

"The more they carry out operations the more we will expand across Pakistan," said spokesman Muslim Khan. "God willing, one day we will touch its last boundary."

Brigadier Mehmood Shah, a Peshawar-based analyst, said Pakistan was finally waking up to the seriousness of the Taliban threat.

"The Taliban have exposed their real intention – not the implementation of Sharia law, but to seize power in Pakistan. It is now clear that al-Qaida is driving these people, and the government has realized it can't [defeat] them with a small effort," he said.