Pakistan lifts Swat Valley curfew enabling locals to flee

A suicide car bomb attack has killed ten people and wounded more than a dozen in Pakistan. The bomber targeted a security checkpost near the main northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. The attack came as Pakistani security forces battled Taliban militants in the Swat valley to stop a growing insurgency across the northwest. The Pakistani army claims it has killed 400 to 500 Taliban militants in the ongoing fighting as tens of thousands of civilians took advantage of a lifted curfew to flee the carnage. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships have pounded Swat and surrounding districts over the past few days after Taliban fighters attempted to impose their reign in other areas, including a region just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. A few of the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis displaced by the fighting have received much-needed food supplies. Some recipients waited at a petrol station serving as an aid distribution point in the town of Rustam in Mardan district. As they left Swat's main town of Mingora, some residents cursed the situation and condemned the Taliban, while others blamed Pakistani leaders for bowing to the West. They were trying to leave any way they could, on motorbikes, animal-pulled carts, rickshaws or on foot. A ban on civilian vehicles entering the valley made the exodus more difficult for those without cars. The international aid agency World Vision said its relief workers were finding "intolerable" conditions at some displaced camps due to soaring temperatures, overcrowding, inadequate toilets and a lack of electricity. Many in the northwest have little faith in the weak civilian government's ability to help them, a challenge to Pakistan's leaders because disillusioned refugees could prove fertile recruiting ground for the Taliban. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has directed millions of pounds to help the residents of the region. The army offensive has garnered praise from the US, which wants Pakistan to root out Taliban militants who are carrying out or planning attacks on US and Nato forces across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan's president has urged international support for the fight and insisted the army had enough troops in the northwest to handle the threat. Swat lies near the Afghan border as well as the wild Pakistani tribal areas, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban have strongholds and where US officials believe al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding. The army says 12,000 to 15,000 troops in Swat face 4,000 to 5,000 militants, including small numbers of foreigners and hardened fighters from the South Waziristan tribal region.

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ITN | May 11, 2009

Tags:. .disillusioned. .mardan. .osama. .rustam. .yousuf