PESHAWAR:Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships Saturday shelled militant hideouts in Buner where a military offensive has displaced thousands of people, officials said.
The military launched a major ground and air assault in Buner five days ago under US pressure after Taliban militants from Swat infiltrated adjoining areas and advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital Islamabad.
The fresh fighting came as the White House said US President Barack Obama would host a summit with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts on Wednesday amid growing US concern over the deteriorating situation in the region.
Helicopters and artillery continued to pound Taliban hideouts in the towns of Ambela, Pir Baba and Sultanwas which are considered militant strongholds, a senior military official said.
"We have besieged a Taliban compound in Ambela where militants had been holding a meeting," said the official, who requested anonymity.
"Our information is that militants are now fleeing Buner," the official said.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas on Friday said some 400 "well-equipped and organised" Taliban had been putting up "stiff resistance" in Buner.
The operation in Buner followed a similar action launched a week ago in nearby Lower Dir district after militants in the Taliban-held Swat pushed further south towards Islamabad, which is central to Washington's strategy for stopping the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The military says around 200 militants have been killed in the Lower Dir and Buner assaults. The military put its own toll at about a dozen dead.
Independent confirmation of the casualties was not immediately possible.
The offensive has displaced tens of thousands of people who are being sheltered in camps in Mardan and Swabi districts of North West Frontier Province, a senior government official said requesting anonymity.
"My information is that some 50,000 people have become homeless and more are coming from the district of half a million people," Buner's former lawmaker Sher Akbar told reporters.
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