Swat almost cleared of Taliban,says Pak

Pakistani troops on Sunday tightened their grip on the just-recaptured main town of troubled Swat Valley....

Pakistani troops on Sunday tightened their grip on the just-recaptured main town of troubled Swat Valley,where the military said the operation could end within days,as at least 50 Taliban militants and nine soldiers were killed in fighting in the northwest tribal areas.

A day after the Pakistan Army claimed it had secured complete control of Mingora,the headquarters of Swat district,security forces began patrolling all important areas of the city. Security forces entered nearby Kalam town after fierce skirmishes with Taliban fighters. Troops were conducting cordon and search operations in Kalam,the military said in a statement.

Security forces also secured a key village 14 km northeast of Bahrain,another Taliban stronghold in Swat,and began consolidating their positions in the area. Curfew was relaxed in parts of Swat for the first time in several days.

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The operation in Swat has been completed almost 90 per cent, Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali told an annual meeting of defence ministers,officials and experts in Singapore on Sunday. Stating that only five to ten per cent of the mopping up was needed in Swat,Ali hoped the remaining militants would also be wiped out within two or three days.

But tension began to rise in South Waziristan,an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold,with military officials saying an offensive was likely there after Swat was secured.

The US and the Afghan government have long been pressing Pakistan to root militants out of South Waziristan and other enclaves on the Afghan border,from where the Taliban direct their Afghan war.

Militants attacked a paramilitary force camp near the town of Jandola,80 km east of Wana,the main town in South Waziristan,late on Saturday,security officials said. They carried out a very serious attack on our positions

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at around midnight. It was repulsed after a heavy exchange of fire, said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas. An intelligence official in the region and TV reports said at least 50 militants and nine soldiers were killed in the attack.