Islamabad, Oct 17 (DPA) A senior Pakistani official said Saturday government forces had started a much-awaited ground offensive against Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region along the Afghan border.
“Our ground troops have started action in various areas of South Waziristan. They are being supported by the air force,” Sama television quoted Tariq Hayyat Khan, the security head of the tribal region of which South Waziristan is a district, as saying.

The offensive will continue until the terrorists are eliminated, he added.

Thousands of families were fleeing the conflict. According to the UN, some 80,000 people had so far been displaced since May, when the Pakistani jets started airstrikes to soften militant positions.

Humayon Khan, the commissioner of Dera Ismail Khan district that borders South Waziristan, said the government expected the numbers of internally displaced people might reach 120,000.

“We have set up four centres in Dera Ismail Khan where the (refugees) are being registered,” he added.

The operation comes after a series of suicide attacks at security installations across the country that left more than 160 people dead, many of them civilians, in less than two weeks.

The army says about two divisions totalling 28,000 soldiers were pitched against 10,000 to 15,000 well-trained and well-equipped guerrilla fighters in the rugged mountainous district.

An intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, were moving from three sides towards the insurgent strongholds in the area.

“Taliban have also taken positions in the mountains and they are targeting our troops from underground bunkers in the forests,” he added.

A roadside bomb exploded next to an army convoy in the Jandola area of South Waziristan, killing one soldier and injuring two more, the intelligence official said. A similar blast killed two troops and injured three in neighbouring North Waziristan district.

The offensive is aimed at fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the former Taliban chief who died in a US drone strike in early August.

Mehsud’s men are believed to be behind dozens of suicide attacks on civilian and government targets in Pakistan over the last two years.