TALIBAN ATTACKS AFGAN OFFICES
About 30 fighters wearing suicide vests and using AK-47s and grenades, have attacked government buildings in the Afghan city of Khost, the Taliban says.Battles on Tuesday are ongoing and all roads in and out of the city in the southeastern Khost province are closed.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, in the capital, Kabul, said that a Taliban spokesman had told Al Jazeera that the 30 fighters were in the city of Khost targeting government buildings and police stations and checkpoints."The latest reports that we have is that Taliban forces are now holed up inside the municipality building in the centre of Khost city. They are surrounded by American special forces and Afghan security forces," she said.
"Two car bombings struck outside the governor's office as well as a police headquarters in the city." "There were fierce gun battles between the Taliban and Afghan security forces."
The unnamed spokesman said that Khost was targeted because of the heavy US military presence there.Courtesy: Al Jazeera
PAKISTAN'S OFFENSIVE FORCED TALIBANS FLEEING
PAKISTAN'S offensive against the Taliban has forced 1 million people to flee their homes, the United Nations said yesterday.Air strikes rocked Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, as the armed forces pressed ahead with an assault to clear out Taliban insurgents who have claimed swathes of the country in recent months.
The latest assessment from the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees revealed the scale of the fighting. It said 200,000 civilians had fled Swat and two neighbouring districts, while another 300,000 were either on the move or preparing to leave.Earlier offensives against the Taliban in other regions of the rugged north-west province near the Afghan border have already displaced 500,000 people.
Many civilians have left their homes and thousands more are trapped by the fighting and are at risk of being used as human shields by Taliban guerillas.
The air force continued to bomb Taliban positions, killing an estimated 140 guerillas in 24 hours, a day after the Government ordered the armed forces to "eliminate terrorists".President Asif Ali Zardari, who is on an official visit to the United States, promised that military operations would last until "normalcy" had returned to Swat.
Courtesy: The Sydney Morning Herald
PAKISTAN FEARS EXCODUS FROM SWAT
Up to half a million Pakistanis living in the Swat valley could be forced flee amid fierce fighting between Taliban fighters and the military, the Pakistan goverment has said.Thousands of people fled the main town of Mingora in the valley, part of the North West Frontier Province, on Tuesday after being told to leave by government officials.
Men, women and children piled onto pick-up trucks in their haste to flee the town.
"People are leaving with literally clothes on their backs and what few possessions they can carry and heading to a makeshift camp," Sohail Rahman, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Islamabad."The social development minister has appealed to aid agencies to try and help those people who were leaving the Swat area and Buner with accommodation."A camp had been set up for the displaced in the nearby town of Dargai, officials said.
"In view of the situation in Swat, at least 500,000 people can migrate from that area. Camps are being established for them," Mian Iftikhar Hussain, North West Frontier Province's information minister, said.
Courtesy: Al Jazeera
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