Pakistan troops, Taliban fight street battle - army

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani soldiers were fighting intense street battles on Wednesday as they pushed into a major Taliban base in the militants' South Waziristan stronghold, the military said.

The army launched an offensive on Oct. 17 aimed at rooting out and defeating Pakistani Taliban militants in the lawless ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border.

Fighting has intensified in recent days after security forces zeroed in on three main militant bases -- Sararogha, Makeen and Ladha -- in their three-pronged offensive.

Soldiers had captured a "major part" of Sararogha and had also stormed into Ladha, the military said.

"Security forces entered into the important stronghold of terrorists, the town of Ladha. Intense fighting is taking place in the streets," the military said in a statement.

South Waziristan' rugged landscape of barren mountains and hidden ravines has become a global centre of Islamist militancy and many foreign al Qaeda fighters are believed to be based there, along with thousands of Pakistani insurgents.

The militants are being squeezed out of their strongholds but have retaliated by stepping up bomb attacks on urban targets.

Security officials say the militants' "command and control structure" is in the three bases and they expect stiff resistance from Taliban defenders.