Soldiers hunt Taliban fighters as Pakistan says victory near

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PESHAWAR: Pakistan's defence secretary said on Sunday that a month-long offensive to crush Taliban fighters in northwest Swat could end within days, as fierce fighting spilled into a nearby tribal area.

Swat valley's main town Mingora is back in government hands, the military announced on Saturday, and security officials said they were now pursuing the top leadership of the hardline Taliban movement into the nearby mountains.

Secretary of Defence Syed Athar Ali told a security forum in Singapore that three targeted northwest districts were almost clear of Taliban rebels.

"Operations in Swat, Buner and adjoining areas have almost met complete success," he said.

"Only five to ten percent of the job is remaining and hopefully within the next two to three days these pockets of resistance will be cleared."

However, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP that it was impossible to estimate when the offensive would end.

"The operation is continuing in all of the areas and at this stage we cannot give any timeframe," he said.

The army remains locked in battle in some areas, but the fall of Mingora was a critical milestone in an offensive launched after the Taliban thrust to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad in April.

Pakistan's military also reported that 25 militants and seven soldiers were killed in clashes in South Waziristan near the Afghan border, a bolt-hole for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants south of the current army bombardment.

"Miscreants attacked a security forces checkpost last night (Saturday) in Spinkai Raghzai, South Waziristan agency. The attack was repulsed successfully, inflicting heavy casualties on militants," it said in a statement.

Fifteen militants and three soldiers died in the clash in Spinkai Raghzai, while elsewhere in the semi-autonomous tribal area 10 insurgents and four troops including a lieutenant died when rebels attacked a military convoy.

Civilians have started fleeing the area fearing a fresh military onslaught, but the army has denied an imminent assault on Waziristan, where militants branded by Washington as the greatest terror threat to the West are holed up.

The United States, which is firmly backing the current military drive, had warned that the rebels threaten Pakistan's very existence.

Officials have said that lower-ranking Taliban leaders had been killed but it was harder to get to the top leaders, who had a network of hardcore militants around them and had slipped into the rugged mountain terrain.

"They will be eliminated wherever we find them," said one military official, who did not wish to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, adding: "We believe that they are somewhere in the mountains."

Pakistan has slapped a 600,000-dollar price on the head of firebrand Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah for masterminding the nearly two-year uprising in the valley to enforce sharia law.

The government has also offered rewards for 21 rebel chiefs - wanted dead or alive - from Swat. The military claims to have killed 1,244 militants since the offensive began, although the numbers are impossible to verify.

As the government ups its campaign to stamp out the militants, fears are growing of a wave of revenge attacks.

The northwestern capital Peshawar and the eastern cultural centre of Lahore have both been rocked by deadly explosions in the last five days, killing a total of 39 people and wounding hundreds more.

A spokesman for Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has claimed Wednesday's suicide bombing on a police building in Lahore, and warned of more "massive attacks" to avenge the Swat military operation.

Nearly 2.4 million people have fled the current offensive, and the military relaxed a curfew Sunday in most parts of the northwest including Mingora to allow people trapped on the roads to return home or leave the region.

Senior Red Cross officials said Sunday they were "gravely concerned" over the situation in Swat Valley, after an ICRC team reported problems with running water, food, electricity and communications.

"The people of Swat need greater humanitarian protection and assistance immediately," said Pascal Cuttat, head of the organisation's delegation in Pakistan.

"Given what we have already seen on the ground, we are mobilising additional resources, but safe and unimpeded access to the area remains essential for our teams to deliver."