Troops encircle Swat, cut off Taliban escape routes

 Mingora

Troops are encircling Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in the Swat Valley, a Pakistani general said on Friday.With scepticism growing about the progress of the month-old army offensive in the north-western region, the army flew a handful of reporters from foreign news organisations into Swat on Friday.An Associated Press reporter aboard the helicopter saw no cars and few people in the town of Mingora or on roads further up the valley.From the air, there was little evidence of the fierce fighting and air strikes that the military claims have already killed more than 1,000 militants as well as some 60 soldiers.But a senior commander insisted the army was trapping militants in Mingora and Peochar, a side-valley further north that is the stronghold of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.‘The noose is tightening around them. Their routes of escape have been cut off,’ Maj. Gen. Sajad Ghani said.‘It’s just a question of time before (Taliban leaders) are eliminated.’Meanwhile, the head of the government relief operation, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, said up to 200,000 civilians were stranded in the valley and authorities might have to drop food to them from the air.But Ahmed said ‘not many’ civilians were left in Mingora, with most people still in the valley in its northern reaches, which had been ‘relatively calm’.In a sign of growing hostility towards the Taliban among people long ambivalent, villagers in two north-western districts are trying to expel the gunmen, a politician and another official said.