Security forces gun down 64 militants

Mingora: Pakistani security forces attacked Taliban fighters Wednesday, killing at least 64 of them, the military said, after the US called on the government to show its commitment to fighting militancy.

Expanding Taliban influence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has spread alarm at home and abroad and will be a core issue when US President Barack Obama meets his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in Washington.

A February peace pact aimed at ending Taliban violence in Swat has collapsed and thousands of people fled from Mingora, the region's main town, on Tuesday after a government official said fighting was expected.

The military launched attacks on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town in Swat, 130 km northwest of Islamabad, and in the nearby district of Buner.

While a curfew kept people off Mingora's streets, government forces struck militant targets with artillery and helicopters, including an emerald mine the Taliban had taken over.

"There have been two quick offensives by security forces. We knocked the militants out and are moving forward," a security official said.

The army said 37 militants were killed in the clashes in Swat, 35 of them at the mine, while two soldiers were killed in a bomb blast. A militant headquarters near Mingora was also destroyed, the military said.

A paramilitary force said 27 militants were killed in Buner. There was no independent confirmation of the toll.

A military official, who declined to be identified, brushed off speculation the clashes signalled an imminent major offensive in Swat but residents said they saw troops being trucked in and a government official also said reinforcements were arriving.

Up to 38,000 people have been displaced from Swat and nearby areas since fighting flared last month, provincial authorities said, adding that up to 800,000 people could flee from the valley, which has a population of 1.6 to 1.7 million.

Several hundred thousand have already fled fighting in different parts of the northwest since August.

A Taliban spokesman said the Swat peace pact was over. "The situation is very bad. They're using all sort of force against us. Full-fledged war has begun and our fighters are putting up resistance," the spokesman, Muslim Khan, said.