Pakistan fighter jets and attack helicopters pounded Taleban targets in the northwest on Wednesday as President Asif Ali Zardari called for global help to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the punishing offensive in the Swat valley, escaping Taleban fighters who have terrorized the population in a bloody campaign to enforce Shariah law and expand their control. Terrified residents trapped in Mingora, the district's main town, told reporters that militants had planted mines and were digging trenches. Air strikes targeted Taleban bastions across Swat, which has sunk from a stunning ski resort favored by Westerners to a crucible of Taleban violence, where ground troops have yet to take control. There were scenes of chaos at the camp, where staff were battling to register the queuing mass of displaced people, sweltering and parched under the beating sun, and angrily complaining about a lack of food and drinking water. President Asif Ali Zardari's ongoing foreign visits have made his absence from Pakistan longest-ever since he assumed the top office eight months back. He will return back to Pakistan early next week after nearly 21-day stay abroad. “After his three-day official visit to Britain that began on Wednesday, President Zardari would go to France for a one-day trip,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told this correspondent. “It is irrelevant to assert the longest duration of the president's current foreign visits. What is important is to look at the productivity and achievements of Zardari's visits to Tripoli, Dubai, Washington, London and Paris,” a presidential aide told this correspondent. The aide said that former President Pervez Musharraf's futile trips to America were always much longer compared to Zardari's. He said that Zardari spent all the time of his stay in the United States for promotion of Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief ordered his men on Wednesday to ensure civilian casualties are kept to a minimum, even if that meant danger for them, in an offensive against Taleban militants in the Swat valley. - Agencies Headless bodies found Troops secured footholds Wednesday in a Pakistani valley overrun by the Taleban, killing 11 militants and discovering five headless corpses near the region's main town, the army said. Elsewhere in the turbulent northwest, police said dozens of assailants stormed a transport depot handling supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan and torched eight trucks before escaping. Rising violence, including a string of attacks on NATO and US supplies, have fed concern that more of Pakistan's border region is slipping from government control and into the hands of the Taleban and Al-Qaeda. “Terrorists and extremists are extending their reach in whole areas of our countries,” Karzai told a regional economic conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The army said Wednesday that commandos airlifted into the valley the day before had established a “firm hold” in the remote Piochar area, the rear base of Swat Taleban leader Maulana Fazlullah. The five headless bodies were found near the valley's main town, Mingora, the army said, giving no details of the victims' identities. Residents have said the Taleban have repeatedly decapitated opponents and dumped their bodies in Mingora. The army says it is proceeding carefully, wary that civilian casualties and massive disruption could sap public support for a sustained operation to undo recent Taleban gains.
