MARDAN, Pakistan (AP) - Helicopters dropped Pakistani commandos into a Taliban stronghold in the Swat Valley on Tuesday, pressing ahead with an offensive the army said had killed more than 750 militants and driven around 800,000 people from their homes. Despite claims of success in an operation that began after heavy U.S. pressure, the army said it had yet to start operations in the region's main town of Swat, where witnesses say Taliban insurgents are in control and preparing for what could be bloody door-to-door fighting.
Choppers placed troops on "search and destroy" missions in the remote Piochar area in the upper reaches of the Swat Valley, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Officials have identified Piochar as the rear-base of an estimated 4,000 Taliban militants. It is seen as a possible hiding place of Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah.
Farther south, a suspected U.S. missile attack flattened a house and killed at least eight people in another militant bastion near the Afghan border. The missile strike destroyed a house in Sara Khora, a village in the South Waziristan tribal region, Pakistani security officials said.
Initial intelligence reports said eight people died. Agents on the ground were still trying to discover the identities of the victims. Yar Mohammad, a resident of the area, told The Associated Press by telephone that he had seen Taliban militants removing bodies from the building and taking them away in vehicles.
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