Pakistan continues offensive in valley

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) — Civilians cowered in hospital beds, and trapped residents struggled to feed their children Saturday, as Pakistani warplanes pounded a Taliban-held valley in what the prime minister called a “war of the country’s survival.”

Warplanes and troops killed dozens of entrenched militants Saturday in the assault on northwestern Swat Valley, the army said.

The offensive has prompted the flight of hundreds of thousands of terrified residents, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nuclear-armed nation’s security, economic and political problems. Desperate refugees looted U.N. supplies in one camp, taking blankets and cooking oil.

A suspected U.S. missile strike killed nine people, mostly foreigners, in South Waziristan, another militant stronghold near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The identities of the victims remained unclear.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani directed millions of dollars to help the residents of a region where faith in the government is shaky, saying the army “can only be successful if there is support of the masses.”

Gilani held an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday. Speaking to reporters afterward, he called the Swat offensive a “war of the country’s survival” but said the military could win.

Encouraged by Washington, Pakistan’s leaders launched the full-scale offensive Thursday to halt the spread of Taliban control in districts within 60 miles of the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan’s army is fighting to wrest Swat and neighboring districts from militants who dominate the adjoining tribal belt along the Afghan frontier, where U.S. officials say al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is likely holed up.

Witness accounts indicate that scores of civilians have already been killed or injured in the escalating clashes in the Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts.

Even the medics are gone: Only three doctors remained Saturday at the hospital in Swat’s main town, Mingora — all of them working flat out.

One of the patients, Omar Ali, said a mortar shell had crashed through the roof of his home near Mingora on Wednesday, killing his 8-year-old son. Ali, his wife and four more children were injured. Neighbors pulled them from the rubble and brought them to hospital.

“We are in pain. We are helpless and homeless,” the tearful 45-year-old government worker told an Associated Press reporter who visited the clinic. “Even here, we are scared because we keep hearing explosions, gunfire and the noise of planes.”