Pakistan's displaced persons total swells

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 25 (UPI) -- Pakistan is having to contend with throngs of displaced people while its army successfully battles militants in its northwestern region, officials say.

Reporting from the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, where about 93,000 have taken shelter, CNN quoted officials as saying up to 1.8 million people have fled as the Pakistani military engage the Taliban in the Swat valley and other parts of the country's northwest.

The U.S. news network reported that although food is available at Jalozai, the refugees cannot afford to buy much of it.

One man at the camp described the bread flour distributed by the United Nations as of such low quality that "even the cows won't eat it."

The worst hit are women and children, suffering from diarrhea and heat stroke, crowding the eight field hospitals at the camp, CNN said.

Pakistani troops said they had recaptured a large part of Mingora, the main Swat valley town, TimesOnLine reported. Officials said Pakistani special forces also were engaged in fights with about 300 militants on streets, some of which are heavily mined.

A senior security source told TimesOnLine that Mullah Fazlullah, who has led the insurgency in the region for months, and some of his lieutenants had been surrounded.

The military said it was concerned about 20,000 civilians trapped in Mingora could be used as human shields by the militants.

The New York Times reported prior to the Mingora campaign, the fighting was mostly in the mountainous countryside but the new campaign, only about 100 miles form the Pakistan capital of Islamabad, could prove tough as the militants are now spread amid civilians in urban areas.