Pakistan army to hold fire in Swat: Official

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 10th, 2009 Gunmen attack Pakistani army headquartersISLAMABAD — A Pakistani military official says gunmen have opened fire near the army's headquarters outside the capital of Islamabad. The assault Saturday morning sparked an intense shootout that was ongoing Saturday.

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 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - One soldier and seven Islamist insurgents were killed in clashes in Pakistan's north-western Swat Valley during a major offensive to expel Taliban from the area, the army said Wednesday. The government says its forces have regained control over much of the district after five months of fighting that left more than 2,000 rebels dead.

July 25th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army said Saturday that 14 Taliban fighters were killed in clashes with security forces in the country's northwestern Swat valley and its adjoining district of Buner. According to an army statement 10 militants died when the troops conducted search operations in four areas of Buner, located some 100 km northwest of Islamabad.

July 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army has named Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem to command the Swat operation against the Taliban, a media report said Saturday.

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.

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.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Asif Ali Zardari has said he knew the Swat peace deal with the Taliban would not work, even as the Pakistan Army intensified its operation against the militant group in the troubled region. The Pakistani Army's advance in Swat marks the failure of Islamabad's boldest attempt yet to compromise with the Taliban.

May 6th, 2009 Key moments in the struggle for Swat ValleyKey moments in the struggle between Taliban militants and Pakistani authorities for control of the northwestern Swat Valley. — July 10, 2007: Army commandos storm the radical Red Mosque in the capital, killing over 100 and drawing calls for revenge from Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.

April 25th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Taliban stopped a convoy of security forces from entering their stronghold in Swat Valley on Saturday. A News Network International (NNI) news agency report said seven army trucks were stopped by armed Taliban at Qamabr, a small town of Mingora, the main city in the Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province.

April 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Army must end its age old anti-India strategy and try to save Pakistan from becoming the caliphate of al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a leading Islamabad based daily. The Taliban are linked to al Qaeda and they are counting on such elements in Punjab to help them take their war down to other parts of Pakistan.

February 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least five militants were killed and six others were injured in an exchange of fire with security forces Friday in northwestern Pakistan, a military statement said. According to the statement, militants opened fire on a patrolling party of the Pakistan Army near Matta in the Swat district, forcing the security personnel to retaliate.