Pakistan pushes into militant havens

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Pakistan's military said it moved farther into mountainous militant terrain Sunday and hit key Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in South Waziristan.

By the second day of the offensive, the Pakistani army said, 60 militants and five Pakistani soldiers had died, The New York Times reported.

But a Taliban spokesman, Azam Tariq, told reporters by telephone the militants had killed 60 soldiers.

An unidentified military official told the newspaper "the level of resistance from the militants is not very high," but that the Pakistani military faced heavily mined areas and homemade bombs.

An estimated 28,000 Pakistani soldiers battled as many as 20,000 militants skilled at fighting in the rugged terrain, the BBC said.

The militants' strategy involves encouraging Pakistani forces to move farther into militant areas in South Waziristan to keep forces in a drawn-out campaign in the mountains over the winter, the Times said.

As the offensive intensified, Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of the United States Central Command overseeing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, traveled to Islamabad Sunday to meet with Pakistani military and civilian leaders. The U.S. military has favored the offensive, which began early Saturday, in the wake of Taliban attacks on Pakistani security installations over the past two weeks.

Thousands of civilians continued fleeing to camps just outside battle zones Sunday, the BBC reported.

Zar Wali, 29, fled Makeen in South Waziristan Sunday with 13 relatives after hearing bombs and gunfire, traveling on foot and by wagon to Bannu, about 50 miles away, The Washington Post reported. In a phone interview, Wali told the Post he had seen a truck caught in the gunfire and that three women inside had been hit.

"It is very bad for the civilians," Wali said.