Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani revealed that rebels masquerading as religious Taliban in the country’s north-west had a ‘foreign agenda’, and said the present war on them would go on until their surrender. His call received a mixed reception with opposition calls for more information and a prominent government ally and one-time Taliban sympathiser dissociating from newly launched military operation in the Malakand division.

The plight of Pakistanis fleeing troubled Swat Valley reflects the hard echoes conditions in such hard-pressed regions as Darfur and Congo. The government pressed its weeks-old military campaign against Taliban insurgents and said its troops had killed about 700 militants. The ongoing conflict started last month when Taliban fighters in the northwestern region of Pakistan expanded into neighbouring areas closer to Islamabad after an agreement to the terms of a now-defunct peace …more…

Shamsul Kamar stood next to his hobbled 13-year-old son Pakhtoon, who grimaced in pain as he curled up on the faded sheets of a hospital bed, his feet bandaged in thick gauze. Pakhtoon and his brother Sayed were sent by their mother to get groceries. As they left their home in Mada, a Taliban-occupied village in the farming district of Swat, government artillery began to blanket the area with shells. The boys …more…

Pakistani officials have reported that a suspected U.S. missile strike killed six people near the Afghan border. Two intelligence officials say that the attack targeted a former government building in South Waziristan, a border region considered a stronghold for both the Taliban and al-Qaida. The identity of the victims is known.