Pakistan Claims Gain In Offensive On Taliban

By MATTHEW ROSENBERG in New Delhi and REHMAT MEHSUD in Peshawar, Pakistan
WSJ

Pakistan soldiers moved to try to encircle Taliban and al Qaeda militants in the South Waziristan mountains near the Afghan border, in a high-stakes offensive aimed at crushing the insurgency in its toughest stronghold.

Military reports Sunday indicated soldiers, whose offensive began before dawn Saturday, were making advances amid stout resistance. Some 30,000 Pakistani soldiers were moving into the area from three directions to face as many as 10,000 Pakistani and foreign militants, many of them veterans of battles in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were said to be fleeing South Waziristan to neighboring areas. "There is a full-fledged war-like situation here, and we are packing to flee however we can find a way, but there is no safe passage," said Muhammad Nawaz, 29 years old, in a telephone interview from the Taliban-controlled town of Makeen. The area is closed to reporters.

(Original here.)