ISLAMABAD — Soldiers sent to halt a Taliban advance toward the Pakistani capital fought their way over a mountain pass Thursday, killed at least 14 militants and narrowly escaped a wave of suicide car bombers, the army said.
As troops pursued an offensive praised by the U.S., a burst of shootings in a southern city left dozens dead and added the specter of ethnic conflict to the Islamist violence gnawing at the nuclear-armed country’s stability.
President Asif Ali Zardari urged ordinary Pakistanis to support the operation in the Buner region so the Islamic nation would remain under "a moderate, modern and democratic state.”
But there was anger and skepticism among hundreds of residents fleeing Buner on Thursday to join more than half a million others displaced by fighting that has flared across the northwestern region over the past year.
Security forces backed by artillery and warplanes began pushing into Buner on Tuesday after Taliban militants from the neighboring Swat Valley infiltrated the area under cover of a peace pact.
U.S. leaders sharply criticized Zardari’s decision to sign a law imposing Islamic law in Swat and the surrounding Malakand region in an attempt to halt two years of bloody and inconclusive fighting.
Defenders of the pact say the Islamic law concession will isolate hard-liners bent on destabilizing the country and bolster thin public support for any later crackdown.
Officials said Thursday the Islamic courts will be up and running within days, despite violence.
by the associated press
As troops pursued an offensive praised by the U.S., a burst of shootings in a southern city left dozens dead and added the specter of ethnic conflict to the Islamist violence gnawing at the nuclear-armed country’s stability.
President Asif Ali Zardari urged ordinary Pakistanis to support the operation in the Buner region so the Islamic nation would remain under "a moderate, modern and democratic state.”
But there was anger and skepticism among hundreds of residents fleeing Buner on Thursday to join more than half a million others displaced by fighting that has flared across the northwestern region over the past year.
Security forces backed by artillery and warplanes began pushing into Buner on Tuesday after Taliban militants from the neighboring Swat Valley infiltrated the area under cover of a peace pact.
U.S. leaders sharply criticized Zardari’s decision to sign a law imposing Islamic law in Swat and the surrounding Malakand region in an attempt to halt two years of bloody and inconclusive fighting.
Defenders of the pact say the Islamic law concession will isolate hard-liners bent on destabilizing the country and bolster thin public support for any later crackdown.
Officials said Thursday the Islamic courts will be up and running within days, despite violence.
by the associated press
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