Helicopter-borne Pakistani soldiers swooped into a Taliban stronghold in a remote corner of Swat today, as the United Nations urged help for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting.
The military's offensive in Swat, 130km northwest of Islamabad, is seen as a test of the government's commitment to face up to a growing Taliban insurgency and comes after the United States accused it of "abdicating" to the militants.
The fighting has caused a civilian exodus from the valley, once a tourist destination, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
A senior military official overseeing help for the displaced said an estimated 800,000 civilians had fled from the latest fighting. They were joining about 500,000 displaced by earlier fighting in the northwest, said Brigadier Aamir Raza Qureshi.
Today, helicopters flew soldiers into the Peochar valley, a side valley running northwest off the main Swat valley, where the Taliban have a headquarters, the military said.
"Their mission is to conduct search and destroy operations," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a briefing.
"The militants are on the run."
Residents said troops had also been seen moving on the ground towards Peochar.
The offensive was launched last week when President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was in Washington assuring a nervous United States his government was not about to collapse and was committed to fighting militancy.
A February pact aimed at ending violence in Swat, which effectively handed the militants control, had raised fears of a gradual Taliban takeover of more areas in the nuclear-armed country, which is vital to US efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and stabilise Afghanistan.
Military spokesman Abbas said 751 militants had been killed in the offensive while 29 soldiers had been killed and 77 wounded. Most reporters have left Swat and there was no independent confirmation of that estimate of militant casualties.
Taliban spokesmen were not available for comment.
There were also clashes in Imam Dehri, the home town of Fazullah, the Taliban chief in Swat. Four militants were killed there, Abbas said.
In all, about 15,000 members of the security forces are facing about 5,000 militants in the region, the military says.
The United Nations has warned of a protracted humanitarian crisis for a country already being propped up by a $7.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan.
The UN refugee agency has opened stockpiles of supplies to help the displaced and is airlifting in tonnes more supplies.
Reuters