Militants resort to new strategy in major cities

Islamabad: Although the Pakistani military claimed victory in a key Taliban stronghold in the beleaguered Swat Valley on Saturday, the government found itself hunkering down against a new battlefront - a bombing campaign in the country's cities.

Pakistani troops have complete control over Mingora, with clashes lingering only on the city's outskirts, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said at a briefing Saturday.

Only a week ago, the military said it was expecting a long, hard-fought battle with Taliban fighters who had fortified themselves in the northwestern city's hotels and buildings. It now appears that, after initially putting up stiff resistance, many militants chose to flee.

"When they realised that they were being encircled and the noose was tightening, they decided not to give a pitched battle," Abbas said.

But the militants may have decided to fight another way: seeding fear through well-coordinated bombing attacks.

Bombers struck in three Pakistani cities last week. On Wednesday in Lahore, gunmen attacked a building housing local police and Pakistani intelligence agents before detonating explosives in a van, killing 27 people.

A day later, attackers set off bombs on motorcycles parked outside busy markets in Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, and attacked police with gunfire. At least six people were killed in that attack and more than 50 injured. That night, suicide bomb attacks killed four police officers on the outskirts of Peshawar and two people in the northwest city of Dera Ismail Khan.

As a result, security was tightened in Islamabad, the capital, and other major cities. In Peshawar, a pall of fear hung over the city as Pakistanis avoided mosques and bazaars. Schools and colleges were shut down, and extra police patrolled the streets.

Pakistan launched the offensive to rid Swat Valley of the Taliban about a month ago. Troops have retaken large sections of Swat once controlled by the Taliban, but the offensive also has resulted in a massive exodus of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said as many as 3 million people have fled their homes and sought refuge either in tent camps or with friends and relatives.

The offensive has the support of the Obama administration, which had grown increasingly concerned about the Taliban's expanding control over northwest Pakistan. Earlier this spring, the Taliban had extended its reach into the Buner district outside Swat, only 60 miles from Islamabad.

On Saturday, military officials said the leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, remained at large.