Bodies of 18 militants found in Pakistan's Swat valley

Aug 16, 2009, 6:40 GMT

   Islamabad - Pakistani troops on Sunday found bodies of at least 18 suspected militants in the scenic Swat valley, where the army is wrapping up a three-month offensive against the Taliban, media reports said.

   The corpses were discovered the same day that US President Barack Obama's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, was scheduled to visit Mingora, main town of the district.

   Holbrooke's trip was postponed Sunday morning because of heavy rains in the region, located 140 kilometers from the capital city, Islamabad.

   During the three-day visit to Pakistan, the US envoy will meet political and military leaders to discuss issues including an energy crisis and the security situation in the north-west. He will then leave for Afghanistan.

   Geo News television channel quoted unnamed officials as saying the bodies found in different villages of Swat were believed to be those of Taliban fighters. All the men were shot to death.

   The military said Saturday that troops killed eight 'terrorists' during a search operation in the Deari area situated not far from Mingora.

   The same day, a suicide car bomb killed three soldiers and two civilians at a checkpoint near the town of Charbagh. It was the first such attack in the former tourist resort since July, when authorities announced it had reclaimed most of the valley.

   The army said more than 1,700 militants have so far been killed in the offensive launched in Swat and nearby districts late May after firebrand cleric Maulana Fazlullah and his men violated a peace deal under which Islamic courts were established in the region.

   The government says troops will be permanently deployed in Swat to prevent resurgence of Taliban violence, which forced nearly 2 million people to flee their homes.

   Repatriation of displaced people is currently going on and the returnees celebrated Pakistan's 63rd Independence Day on Friday with much public fanfare, which was restricted when Fazlullah's loyalists controlled the area.