Eighteen militants killed as Taliban scraps peace deal in Pakistan

Jun 30, 2009, 13:21 GMT

   Islamabad - Pakistan's military and a tribal militia have killed 18 militants in the restive north-west in the past 24 hours, officials said Tuesday, after a pro-government Taliban commander scrapped a peace deal with authorities.

   The developments came as government forces were nearing the conclusion of a more than four-week offensive against the Taliban in the Malakand region of North-West Frontier Province and preparing for a ground operation in the neighboring tribal region.

   An army statement said 16 were killed during a 'search and sweep operation' in various areas of Swat, one of Malakand's four districts, where the security forces began a campaign to expel the Taliban in late April when the rebels failed to observe the terms of a peace deal.

   Three soldiers also died and eight, including two officers, were injured in the clashes.

   Separately, a pro-government tribal militia, locally known as Lashkar, conducted 'house-to-house searches and burnt 15 terrorist hideouts,' the army statement said. During an exchange of gunfire with militants, two insurgents were killed and 20 were apprehended, it said.

   The army also said the Taliban in Swat had killed 18 injured colleagues because they could not be moved to safe places. The claim could not be independently confirmed.

   The government's drive in Swat and its adjoining districts have so far eliminated more than 1,600 Taliban fighters by government estimates but displaced about 2.5 million people, causing a major humanitarian crisis in Pakistan's north-west.

   More displacements were expected from the country's restive tribal region, where wide unrest was looming a day after a Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahader, scrapped a peace deal with the authorities.

   Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for Bahadur, told reporters by phone that the Taliban would continue its attacks until the government took action to stop missile attacks by US pilotless aircraft and withdraw Pakistani troops from North Waziristan, the Dawn newspaper reported Tuesday.

   Ahmadi also claimed responsibility for an ambush Sunday on an army convoy in the district that killed 16 soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, and destroyed about a dozen vehicles.

   Bahadur, who has 8,000 to 10,000 fighters at his disposal, signed a peace deal with the government in 2006 after bloody clashes with troops but scrapped it the next year. After months of negotiations, the two sides agreed on another accord in February 2008.

   The accords have kept North Waziristan relatively calm compared with the rest of the mountainous tribal region.

   But the fighters loyal to Bahadur continued hosting al-Qaeda operatives and targeting NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan, prompting US drone attacks in his territory.

   The announcement from Bahadur coincided with a military push in neighbouring South Waziristan to track down the Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, believed to be behind a series of suicide bombings that have killed thousands of civilians and security personnel over the past two years.

   For the past three weeks, jets, helicopter gunships and artillery fire have pounded Mehsud's stronghold to soften his positions before infantry troops engage his 10,000 to 15,000 men in ground fighting.

   Analysts have said defeating Mehsud's well-trained and well-equipped guerilla fighters in the tribal areas' most difficult terrain would be a major test for Pakistan's military and its efforts would be further complicated if other Taliban groups, including that of Bahadur, join him.