Pakistan Retakes Taliban-Held Town

11/28/2007

Associated Press | November 28, 2007


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Security forces have regained control of a mountain town in northern Pakistan after shelling forced pro-Taliban militants to pull out, the military said Nov. 28.

The insurgents fled "in a disorganized manner" as troops entered the town of Alpurai in Swat, a former tourist destination, the military said in a statement. It said security forces were advancing on the hills ringing the town.

Fighters loyal to rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah drove into Alpurai on Nov. 13, seizing the police headquarters in the town and hoisting their white flags on government buildings.

Troops using mortars and field guns also dislodged militants from their mountain strongholds near Swat's main town of Mingora, the army said.

Army spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad said security forces also captured several other villages in the area. About 220 militants have been killed so far in the dayslong operation, Arshad said on Dawn News television. He gave no figure for government casualties.

Separately Wednesday, assailants killed three government soldiers and wounded five in Pakistan's insurgency-hit southern province of Baluchistan, officials said.

Pakistan's army is trying to stamp out a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan, a resource-rich but underdeveloped province bordering Afghanistan and Iran. Baluch nationalist groups are campaigning for greater autonomy for the region and more royalties for the extraction of its gas reserves.