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UPDATE 3-Swat's main town "fully under control"-Pakistan army

Sat May 30, 2009 7:39pm IST
 
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* Medical teams, food supplies enter Mingora

* Over two million people have fled conflict zone

(Adds Waziristan clash, details)

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD, May 30 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces have regained full control of Mingora, a week after re-entering the main town in the Swat valley to dislodge thousands of Taliban fighters, the military said on Saturday.

Recapturing Mingora, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, would raise the prospect that some of more than 2 million people who have fled the conflict zone could soon begin to go home, alleviating a humanitarian crisis.

"It's very good that Mingora city has come under the full control of the security forces," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a news conference.

The United States and other Western allies have been heartened by the army's show of resolve. There had been fears for the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons if the Taliban threat had been allowed to spread any closer to the capital.

Around 300,000 people lived in Mingora until the Taliban occupied the town in early May when the army first launched an offensive in Swat, an alpine valley in the northwest.  Continued...

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