Taliban said facing defeat in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 26 (UPI) -- A peace gesture by Taliban militants being pounded by the Pakistani army in the country's northwest has been rejected, the military said.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan had offered "no shooting in Mingora," the main town in the Swat Valley that has been the epicenter of the bitter fighting in the northwest, Pakistan's Daily Times reported Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief army spokesman, was quoted as saying the Taliban were "staring defeat in the face ... They are now remembering the civilians whom they used to behead and decapitate," the Daily Times reported.

Separately, CNN quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying the group wants to return to a failed peace deal that led to the current fighting but the offer was rejected.

A spokesman for Taliban mediator Sufi Mohammed said the Swat Valley militants were willing to disarm in exchange for the Pakistani government allowing Sharia or Muslim law to be introduced in the region.

The previous peace deal with the same terms did not hold as the militants refused to give up their arms, the U.S. news network said.

The Pakistani military claimed about 1,100 militants had been killed in the latest round of fighting in which 75 Pakistani security personnel also died.

The Press Trust of India quoted the Pakistani military as saying its troops met with militant resistance as they sought to regain complete control of Swat Valley, including Mingora where street fighting was continuing.

The fighting has forced about 2.4 million people from their homes, the United Nations estimates.