Pakistan jets bombed Taliban hideouts in the Swat valley where the government sent fresh troops with orders to "eliminate" extremists in the battle to control the northwest.
Authorities slapped an indefinite curfew in a key area through which reinforcements were to travel to the mountainous former ski resort, ripped apart by two years of fighting amid a Taliban campaign to impose sharia law.
Helicopter gunships and warplanes blasted suspected Taliban hideouts in Swat as ground forces came under heavy fire from militants, largely young men who are highly motivated ideologically and frequently better paid than soldiers.
The violence has torpedoed a deeply controversial February agreement signed with an Islamist hardliner to put three million people under sharia law in exchange for peace, but Pakistan has now said it will fight to the end.
Fighter jets resumed strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Matta, Kabal and Khawazakhela towns of Swat district after a night of intense gunfire in those Taliban bastions, said a local military official.
"Our troops are advancing in Lower Dir and last night was the most intense shelling in Maidan in the past 12 days," he said, unable to confirm casualty figures, unverifiable from other officials because of the ongoing operation.
As troops and paramilitary forces rolled further north, mobile phone and terrestrial lines jammed along the route, residents said.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for unity against extremists he said were threatening the nation's sovereignty and who had violated the deal.
President Asif Ali Zardari, in Washington for talks aimed at quelling the chronic unrest that caused massive alarm for his US ally, vowed military operations would last until "normalcy" had returned to Swat.
"It's a regional problem, it's a worldwide problem," he said after meeting key Congressional leaders urgently trying to complete a 7.5 billion dollar aid package to shore up the weak civilian government.
US President Barack Obama has placed Pakistan at the heart of the struggle against Al-Qaeda and has branded militants in the northwest of the nuclear-armed country as the biggest terror threat facing the West.
Critics, who said the February peace deal had emboldened the Taliban as they advanced further south toward Islamabad, have welcomed the renewed military offensive and the government has been bolstered by a surge of public support.
"An indefinite curfew was imposed early Friday, from Malakand district to Swat valley, in order to facilitate the deployment of troops," a military official told AFP.
He declined to say how many more troops were being deployed.
In his address, Gilani said the armed forces had been called "to eliminate the militants and terrorists" in order to restore the "honour and dignity of our homeland".
"The time has come when the entire nation should side with the government and the armed forces against those who want to make the entire country hostage and darken our future at gunpoint," he added.
The military said late Thursday nine soldiers had died in the previous 24 hours in Swat, including seven in an ambush at Mingora, the main town.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking during a visit to Kabul, hailed Pakistan's action against the Taliban and voiced confidence that Islamabad's nuclear arsenal was secure.
Marai
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