MINGORA, Pakistan — Civilians cowered in hospital beds and residents struggled to feed their children Saturday, as Pakistani warplanes pounded a Taliban-held valley in what Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called a "war of the country’s survival.”
Gilani held an emergency Cabinet meeting as warplanes and troops killed dozens of entrenched militants in the assault on northwestern Swat Valley.
The offensive has prompted the flight of hundreds of thousands of terrified residents, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nuclear-armed nation’s security, economic and political problems.
Desperate refugees looted U.N. supplies in one camp around the city of Mardan, taking blankets and cooking oil.
The U.N. refugee agency has registered some 150,000 people fleeing the latest fighting. Pakistani and U.N. officials say the total number displaced may reach half a million.
Pakistan’s army is fighting to wrest Swat and neighboring districts from militants who dominate the adjoining tribal belt along the Afghan frontier, where U.S. officials say al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden likely is holed up.
by the associated press
Gilani held an emergency Cabinet meeting as warplanes and troops killed dozens of entrenched militants in the assault on northwestern Swat Valley.
The offensive has prompted the flight of hundreds of thousands of terrified residents, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nuclear-armed nation’s security, economic and political problems.
Desperate refugees looted U.N. supplies in one camp around the city of Mardan, taking blankets and cooking oil.
The U.N. refugee agency has registered some 150,000 people fleeing the latest fighting. Pakistani and U.N. officials say the total number displaced may reach half a million.
Pakistan’s army is fighting to wrest Swat and neighboring districts from militants who dominate the adjoining tribal belt along the Afghan frontier, where U.S. officials say al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden likely is holed up.
by the associated press
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