By Asif Shahzad
Associated Press
Saturday, May 2, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 1 -- Pakistani troops backed by attack helicopters stepped up an operation to push the Taliban farther from the capital Friday, saying they had killed dozens of fighters. But the government was resisting Western pressure to expand the crackdown and abandon peace talks with insurgents who want to impose their brand of Islam across this nuclear-armed country.

The army launched the drive to retake Buner, a poor, hilly region just 60 miles from Islamabad, on Tuesday after Taliban fighters from the neighboring Swat Valley overran it under cover of a controversial peace pact.

A military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said Friday that at least 55 insurgents had been killed in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total killed since Tuesday to more than 100.

The Obama administration has welcomed the assault. It views the Swat deal, which calls for the imposition of Islamic law in the surrounding area of northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, as a surrender to allies of al-Qaeda.

It is particularly concerned because it considers stability in Pakistan -- and rooting out the country's insurgent havens -- critical to success in the Afghan war.

But the government in Islamabad is refusing to extend the operation beyond Buner and to halt the peace talks favored by many Pakistanis skeptical of Western goals in the region. The army says it expects to wind up the Buner operation within a week of when it started.

On Friday, the army said its troops routed about 80 fighters dug in on the Ambela Pass leading into Buner from the south and were trying to link up with government forces holding the main town of Daggar.

Security forces have barred most reporters from entering the area, and phone lines were down, making it hard to verify the army's account of the fighting.

Abbas also accused insurgents of violating the terms of a cease-fire in Swat Valley by reestablishing roadblocks, planting roadside bombs and kidnapping policemen. An army statement in Swat said Pakistani troops had repulsed an attack on a security forces checkpoint in Khwazakhela in the valley Friday.

Swat's Taliban members appear to have been emboldened since their bloody, two-year campaign in the valley led the government in February to sign an accord that imposes Islamic law in the Malakand district, which includes Swat and Buner.

Critics warn that insurgents, who have beheaded opponents and burned down girls' schools, will manipulate the new Islamic courts to impose a draconian version of Islamic law and create a haven from which they are sure to expand.

But Pakistani leaders say that setting up Islamic courts -- a popular demand in Swat -- will rob the insurgents of their main rallying call and make it easier to justify a crackdown on those who refuse to renounce violence.