Nine soldiers killed in Taliban-held Swat Valley

Nine Pakistani soldiers were killed in the north-western district of Swat, including seven in one ambush, as clashes between the military and Taliban forces intensified. War planes are bombing suspected Taliban hideouts in the area.Pakistani attack helicopters and war planes pounded suspected Taliban hideouts Thursday, as thousands of people fled the deadliest fighting to erupt in the northwest district of Swat in months.Aid workers warned that the humanitarian crisis was escalating in the area after families streamed out of the Taliban militant stronghold on foot or crammed into cars weighed down with provisions and household possessions."A mortar shell hit the outer wall of my house last night. Luckily, we survived. I feel God has given me an opportunity I can't miss. I'm leaving. Swat is not worth living in," Nasir Jamal, a medical shop owner, told AFP.Security forces targeted militants holed up in Malam Jabba, Matta and Khawaza Khela of Swat, one day after 37 rebels were killed in the deadliest fighting to rock the area since a peace deal was reached in February.The agreement between the government and the Taliban to allow sharia law in Swat was supposed to end the bloodshed after a nearly two-year violent Taliban uprising."If there is no peace, there is no deal as it is directly linked to the restoration of peace," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.A military official in the northwest said troops were ordered to target militant hideouts and establish the writ of the government "at any cost" as the peace deal unravelled.Pakistan is under US pressure to crush militants, who Washington has called the biggest terror threat to the West and US President Barack Obama has put the nuclear-armed Muslim country at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda.