Pakistan/Afghanistan: On Ground Updates - May 07, 2009

Pakistan/Afghanistan: On Ground Updates
Pakistan Military says regional offensive killed more than 200 militants
Thursday, May 07, 2009
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* VOANews.com has the following report up on their website today and it starts off like this… Pakistan ordered its military to eliminate militants on Thursday, as troops targeted suspected Taliban positions in the country's northwest…
Read the full report at link below…
Pakistan Orders Military to Eliminate Militants, Terrorists
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* MiamiHerald.com reports it this way… Pakistan declared war on its homegrown Islamic extremists Thursday in a dramatic move that could trigger a wider conflagration… Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a late-night televised address to the nation, said Pakistan would launch a full-scale offensive against Pakistani Taliban guerrillas who've seized control of the vast Swat valley, which is about 100 miles north of the capital… Pakistan will no longer "bow our heads before the terrorists," Gilani said in an 11 p.m. address as he called on citizens to rally behind the armed forces. He said that the government had tried peaceful negotiation with Taliban entrenched in the Swat valley, but the strategy hadn't worked… Pakistan had "reached a stage where the government believes that decisive steps have to be taken," he said, and the army's job now was to "eliminate the militants and the terrorists."…
Read the rest at link below…
Pakistan launches full-scale military assault on Taliban

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Residents Flee Pakistani War Zone

About news video: Thousands of Pakistani civilians are fleeing a former tourist destination turned war zone where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.
This news video posted on YouTube by AssociatedPress
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AubreyJ………