PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Government forces Saturday attacked the strongholds of Taliban fighters who for the first time had appeared poised to make at least a symbolic strike at a major Pakistani city.
The offensive in the Khyber tribal agency just outside Peshawar, the main city in the country's troubled northwest, marked an abrupt about-face for Pakistan's new government. Until Saturday's action, the governing coalition had sought to negotiate with the insurgents instead of take them on militarily.
It was unclear whether the operation marked a long-term change in the government's approach to dealing with the Taliban. Western nations, including the United States, have expressed deep misgivings about Pakistan attempting to strike truces with pro-Taliban local commanders.
In a sign of the central government's ambivalence about fighting the militants, only paramilitary soldiers of the Frontier Corps, who are lightly equipped and poorly trained in comparison with regular army troops, took part in the Khyber operation.
About 700 of the paramilitary troops took part in the offensive, setting up sandbagged emplacements on the city's edge and lobbing artillery shells at militant hide-outs in the foothills leading to the historic Khyber Pass.
In a scene that was shown over and over again on national television, government troops blew up the headquarters of the main Khyber warlord, an illiterate former bus driver named Mangal Bagh. He was said to have fled north to the rugged Tirah Valley.
By day's end, the Frontier Corps' commander, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Alam Khattak, said his troops had seized the high ground outside the city and destroyed three militant bases. One insurgent was killed, he said.
The clash capped days of increasingly provocative actions by the militants, who had filtered into Peshawar from the nearby tribal areas, staging abductions, threatening judges and teachers, and sending pickup trucks full of armed men even into heavily fortified parts of the city.
Most analysts said it was extremely unlikely the militants could have actually seized Peshawar, the provincial capital. But the insurgents showed they could score propaganda points and frighten residents just by giving the appearance of having their sights on the city, which is less than a two-hour drive from the capital, Islamabad.
