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MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) - A senior commander of Pakistan’s military offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley said Wednesday the army will likely have to stay there for at least another year to prevent militants from re-establishing control.
Maj. Gen. Ijaz Awan said the armed forces are continuing to penetrate Taliban-held areas in the valley and are gearing up for a fight in Kabal town where the military believes senior militants leaders may be holed up.
"We have bottled them up very well, hopefully this will be a decisive battle here" in Kabal, Awan told reporters who visited the nearby town of Mingora on Wednesday. "Their deaths are vital to killing their myth."
The battle for Swat, launched in late April after the militants abandoned a peace deal with the government that gave them control of the region, is seen by Washington as a test of Pakistan’s resolve to root out militants from their strongholds in the northwestern border region with Afghanistan.
The United States strongly backs the campaign, and it has enjoyed broad support among Pakistanis tired of militant attacks in the country that have killed hundreds of civilians.
But that support may sour if civilian casualties turn out to be high or if the government is perceived to deal badly with a refugee crisis that the fighting has spawned. The government is also having to contend with a rise in militant attacks in other parts of the country that officials say are bids by the Taliban to distract the military’s attention from Swat.
