Pakistan kill 42 Taliban fighters in Waziristan assault (correction)

Oct 27, 2009, 15:29 GMT

   Islamabad/Geneva - The Pakistani army said Tuesday that 42 Taliban militants and one soldier were killed in the ongoing offensive in South Waziristan district near Afghan border.

   The latest casualties came as the United Nations reported the assault had displaced at least 205,000 people from the rugged, mountainous district.

   The military launched a three-pronged operation in the region more than a week ago, vowing to purge the Taliban network believed to be behind dozens of suicide attacks over the last two years.

   'Security forces are steadily progressing on all three axes and clearing the area,' said an army statement on Tuesday. It said 42 militants and one soldier died in the clashes while two troops were injured.

   Troops regained control of one security post that the Taliban had occupied months ago, and laid siege to the nearby Nawaz Kot village - one of the several militant strongholds in the district.

   Arms and ammunition were recovered from the post, the army said.

   The assault is a crucial test for Pakistan's determination and capacity to fight the growing militancy that poses a serious security threat at home as well as abroad.

   According to the military officials, the fighting in Waziristan so far has killed 240 insurgents and 31 soldiers. But the figures could not be confirmed independently since the authorities have blocked access to the region.

   The latest United Nations figures showed on Tuesday that the Waziristan offensive has displaced at least 205,000 people.

   Some 80,000 to 100,000 people are estimated to remain in the area most affected by fighting, Manual Bessler, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Pakistan, told reporters in Geneva.

   Bessler said humanitarian aid agencies still face access problems, and were unable to reach people in the areas seeing combat as well as some of the displaced people.

   Security concerns in the 'highly volatile' area left aid players little room to maneuver, OCHA said.

   The UN still expected more people to be left homeless by the ongoing fighting.

   Almost all those uprooted from South Waziristan are living with the relatives or rented accommodations in various districts of the neighbouring North Western frontier Province

   In order to avert the offensive, Taliban have intensified attacks across Pakistan, killing more than 200 people only in October.

   A high-ranking military officer narrowly escaped a militant attack in Islamabad on Tuesday, the police said.

   A gunman showered the jeep with bullets soon after the brigadier left his residence with his mother and driver. No one was hurt.

   It was the second attack on a top military brass in one week in the capital. Last Thursday, gunmen on a motorbike fired on an army jeep, killing a brigadier and a soldier.

   Separately, some media reports said six Taliban and two security personnel died when the rebels raided a security check post in Mohman tribal district.

   In retaliatory fire, six militants died and 13 were injured, Aaj television reported.