Pakistani military shows off captured Taliban base

BANAI BABA ZIARAT, Pakistan " A Pakistani flag now flies over army troops dug in on a strategic ridge that until two days ago was held by the Taliban, a base where militants trained fighters, built tunnels and equipped caves with electricity and air vents.

The takeover of the highest Taliban stronghold in the Swat Valley by troops who stormed up its jagged, rubble-strewn slopes is evidence of the success of Pakistan's month-old army offensive. The action has been welcomed by the United States, which fears the nuclear-armed country is capitulating to the militants.

But much of the region still remains in the hands of the militants, including Buner " a district just 60 miles from the capital Islamabad and the focus of intense air and ground operations in recent weeks, according to witnesses and police officers who spoke to an Associated Press reporter in its main town Friday.

Several residents pointed to the mountains and warned that the Taliban were not far away.

Police were still too frightened to enter parts of Buner and the town of Dagar, 12 miles away, which the military said was "liberated" from the Taliban.

"We have been destroyed by the Taliban," said white-bearded Ayub Khan, as army trucks rumbled past a ruined market and a charred gas station where a suicide bomber had killed four soldiers in the early days of the battle.

The Obama administration has declared eliminating militant havens in Pakistan vital to its goals of defeating al-Qaida and winning the war in neighboring Afghanistan. U.S military officers say insurgents use Pakistan as a base to launch attacks over the frontier in Afghanistan.

But Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, the top U.S. general in eastern Afghanistan, said there was evidence that insurgents were crossing into Pakistan, possibly to join the fight in Swat and other regions of the northwest where militants are holed up.

The Swat offensive has triggered an exodus of nearly 1.9 million refugees, more than 160,000 to sweltering camps, while the rest have been taken in by relatives, friends or in rented accommodation. Foreign countries and the United Nations are donating money to relieve the crisis.

The army claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants, but said Friday the Taliban control the main town of Mingora; Piochar, a side-valley farther north that is a Taliban base; and several other districts. The army said those areas are increasingly surrounded by Pakistani troops.

Senior commanders estimated the operation could last another two or three months.