Beijing Olympics: Pakistan launches offensive against Taliban militants

Pakistan on Sunday launched a new offensive against Taliban militants in its northwest after coming under heavy US pressure to halt advancing extremists, jolting a shaky peace deal.

The February accord to put three million people under sharia law was billed as the end of a nearly two-year brutal Taliban insurgency that ripped apart the pristine ski resort of Swat but was followed by further Taliban encroachments.

"Enough is enough. We have decided to flush them out," interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told private television channel Geo.

"The peace accord was linked to peace. When there is no peace, there is no use for that accord," Malik said.

"I appeal to the Taliban to lay down their arms. There is no other option for them," he said.

The military said Frontier Corps paramilitary launched an operation against the Taliban in Lower Dir, one of the districts of Malakand covered by the sharia law deal, after militants killed a soldier in a deadly ambush.

Malik said the district was "totally under our control".

"Lal Qila in Lower Dir has been fully secured after the successful operation by the Frontier Corps FC against the miscreants today," the military said.

It said a "number" of militants had been killed and that the dead bodies of 26 insurgents had been found.

The military reported heavy exchanges of fire and said one security force personnel was killed and four wounded.

A security official identified a dead militant commander as Maulana Shahid, said to be "in charge" of the Taliban in Dir and killed with eight others when troops shelled his madrassa, or religious seminary.

Pakistani security forces have been heavily criticised for allowing the Taliban to act with impunity while either incapable or unwilling to intervene.

But the main Taliban spokesman in the area and a representative of Soofi Mohammad, the pro-Taliban cleric who signed the February agreement with the government slammed Sunday's operation as a "violation" of the deal.

"If the government commits atrocities against us then the Taliban reserves the right to reply back," said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan.

"Now there is Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat and soon Tehreek-e-Taliban Peshawar will be established. How far can the government run? If it continues with the same policies this country will soon become Afghanistan," he said.

Tehreek-e-Taliban is a loose umbrella group for the Pakistani Taliban lead by Baitullah Mehsud.

"It is the sheer violation of the agreement which we had with the provincial government on February 16," Mohammad's spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan told AFP, adding that he would convene a consultative council to decide about the deal.

"The peace agreement has not been breached but action against militants was an expression of the determination that no one would be allowed to disturb law and order," spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

Neal