9:56am UK, Friday May 08, 2009

Alex Crawford,
Asia Correspondent

Up to half a million people are feared trapped in the fighting between Pakistani troops and Taliban mlitants in the Swat Valley.

Refugees flee the fighting, which has intensified

Eye Witnesses in the former tourist spot told Sky News there are still constant military strikes going on in and around the capital Mingora and other parts of the area, known as the Malakand Division.

Jet fighters have flown sorties attacking militant targets from the area accompanied by helicopter gunships.

In addition, thousands of troops are combing the mountainous countryside around and trying to move into the populated areas where the militants have taken refuge.

The commissioner of Malakand Division Farzal Karim Khattak told me: “Half a million people have already fled the war zone but many are still stranded.

“There is a curfew at the moment because military convoys are moving in the area.

Pakistani soldiers on the streets of Mardan in Swat Valley

“The military is trying use maximum restraint so civilians do not get hurt but the militants are using the civilians as human shields to try to stop our forces moving against them.”

He was speaking after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on state television he had ordered the army to “eliminate the militants and terrorists”.

It appears the military is making progress. The emerald mines which had been taken over by the Taliban are now being targeted and overnight the security forces said they had destroyed a militant base in Mingora.

A police station which had been used by the militants in Ouch in Lower Dir has also been blown up by the security forces.

But according to eye witnesses the Taliban are still patrolling in a number of areas including Lower Dir and Gulabad.

They also have control of Chakdara Road – one of the main routes linking Lower Dir to Upper Dir.