Pakistan orders offensive against Taliban chief

By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said on Sunday.

The announcement came hours after a bomb in a market killed eight people in a northwest Pakistani town, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat valley northwest of Islamabad.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against militants in Swat.

The militants have responded with a string of bombs in towns and cities.

Mehsud has been blamed for many of the suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.

Expectations have been rising that the military will launch an offensive against him as the army enters the final stages of its campaign in Swat.

"The military and law enforcement agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-fledged operation to eliminate these beasts and killers by using all resources," Awais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, told reporters, referring to Mehsud.

He did not say when the offensive would be launched but said Mehsud and his people had provided shelter to "anti-Pakistan forces", including many foreigners, and had been training suicide bombers.