CHUPRIAL, Pakistan — Pakistan could wrap up the main phase of its anti-Taliban offensive in the Swat Valley within 10 days, a senior commander said Saturday, as the military confirmed the first kills in a new operation in the nearby tribal zone.
Pakistan is shifting the focus in its fight against militancy from the northwestern Swat Valley, where troops have been pushing Taliban fighters back for almost two months, to a new and much tougher battleground in the Afghan border region.
Washington supports both operations and sees them as a measure of nuclear-armed Pakistan’s resolve to take on a growing insurgency after years of failed military campaigns and faltering peace deals.
The battle in the tribal region also could help the war in Afghanistan because the area has been used by militants to launch cross-border attacks on U.S. and other troops.
Maj. Gen. Sajjad Ghani, the commander of about 20,000 troops in the northern part of Swat where the area’s top Taliban leader was based, told The Associated Press that some of the final strongholds were being cleared and that “high intensity” operations would end in a week to 10 days.
But stragglers could be expected to keep launching attacks on troops “for some time,” he said.
“This area is the center of gravity for the terrorists,” Ghani said. “As of now, there are only pockets of resistance left. The terrorists are on the run. Command and control is in disarray. They are unable to organize an integrated response” to the army.
The battle zone is strictly controlled, making it almost impossible to verify the military’s description of events. Ghani spoke during a trip by a small group of journalists who were flown into the remote area by the army. In nearby South Waziristan, shelling and bombing of suspected militant targets has been stepped up and ground troops have been moving into position in the past week since the government announced the military would go after Pakistan’s Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud.
Jet fighters flattened two abandoned militant-linked seminaries and a training facility Friday — a further sign the operation was ramping up.
