Pakistan army says Taliban militant leader in Swat Valley wounded in airstrike

October 12th, 2009 Explosion rocks NW Pakistan, 7 deadPESHAWAR, Pakistan — An explosion rocked a northwest Pakistani district next to the troubled Swat Valley on Monday, killing at least seven people, officials said. Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a weekend siege of the army's headquarters.

October 12th, 2009 Explosion rocks NW Pakistan, casualties fearedPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani police say an explosion has rocked a market in a northwest district next to the troubled Swat Valley. Police official Tahir Khan says casualties are feared in the Monday blast, which may have been a car bombing.

October 12th, 2009 Explosion in northwest Pakistan kills 7PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Seven people are dead after an explosion in a district next to the troubled Swat Valley. Local Mayor Bakhte Alam says many more are wounded in the Monday blast in a Shangla district market.

September 16th, 2009 Pakistan makes another arrest in Swat ValleyISLAMABAD — Pakistan killed 10 insurgents and arrested a militant commander accused of beheading troops in the northwestern Swat Valley, notching up more successes in an offensive that has been welcomed at home and in the U.S., an army spokesman said Thursday. Sher Muhammad Qasab was captured this week at an undisclosed location in the valley, said Col.

September 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's military said Friday it has arrested a Taliban spokesman in the Swat valley, where troops have spent five months fighting Islamist insurgents. Muslim Khan was captured with four colleagues including key militant commander Mehmood Khan, Geo news channel reported, citing army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.

September 10th, 2009 Pakistan: Swat Taliban spokesman, 4 others heldISLAMABAD — Pakistani soldiers arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat Valley and four other commanders, the military announced Friday, striking its first direct blow against the leadership of the insurgency in the one-time tourist resort. The army did not say when the men were arrested but described their detention as the result of a "successful operation" in Swat.

September 1st, 2009 Pakistan forces destroy 3 militant bases in NWPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Government forces destroyed three militant bases and killed five insurgents Tuesday in Pakistan's northwestern border region, the military said. Two militant commanders were among those killed in the dawn raids in the Khyber region, a statement from the Frontier Corps said.

August 31st, 2009 Pakistan army: 30 Taliban killed in Swat battlesISLAMABAD — Pakistani soldiers killed at least 30 Taliban militants in gunbattles across the volatile northwestern Swat Valley after a suicide bombing on a police station killed 17 cadets, the military said Monday. Soldiers looking for militants after the bombing encountered resistance in several areas and battles raged overnight into early morning Monday, army spokesman Col.

July 19th, 2009 Possible audio of Swat Taliban chief surfacesISLAMABAD — Pakistan's army is investigating whether the leader of the Taliban in the northwest Swat Valley, said to have been wounded in an airstrike, delivered a recent radio address, a spokesman said Sunday. A local resident said the voice on the recording Tuesday was definitely Maulana Fazlullah's, but that he sounded somber and sick.

July 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Swat Taliban chief, Mullah Fazlullah has been grievously injured in the ongoing military offensive, and is on his 'death bed', a BBC report has claimed. According to the report, BBC reporters gathered information about Fazlullah's condition through the several residents of the Swat Valley, whom they had interviewed recently.

June 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has said that it is too soon for Pakistan to declare victory in the Swat Valley, where the Army has purportedly put the Taliban insurgents on the back foot. Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Pakistan and Afghanistan in Italy, said in an interview that it was too early for Pakistan to announce victory in Swat.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army would need to stay in the Swat Valley for at least a year after its operation against the Taliban in the region is accomplished, in order to prevent the extremists from resurfacing again, a senior Army official has said. Major General Ijaz Awan, who is commanding the military's Swat offensive, said the army would have to stay in the valley for at least another year so that peace and security could be re-established.

June 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban leadership has shifted to mountains to regroup and strike back at a suitable time, The Nation reports. After losing hundreds of their low cadre militants in fierce clashes with the Pakistani Army, the central leadership of Swat-Taliban has simply left the valley and hopes to emerge stronger at the right time.

May 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan expects the military offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat valley to end within two or three days, Islamabad's Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali said Sunday. "Only five to 10 percent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to three days the pockets of resistance will be cleared," Ali said at a regional defence conference in Singapore, the Dawn newspaper reported.

May 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan security forces on Tuesday claimed to have killed at least 28 more Taliban operatives, at a key militant stronghold in the Swat Valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). According to The News, the army opened up a new front in the suspected stronghold of Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah and his top lieutenants in the northern mountains of the region.