Street battles rage in Pakistan

Pakistan said troops were locked in bloody street battles with Taliban fighters in the northwest as rival politicians united behind the offensive to eliminate Islamist militants.
Pakistan's deadly operation against Taliban fighters entered a fourth week on Monday as jets and helicopters pounded militant targets, and infantry troops fought street battles in towns of the Swat district.
Nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced in the massive onslaught, waged under tough US pressure to clamp down on militants in the northwest of the country which Washington branded the greatest terror threat to the West.
Fighter jets and attack helicopters pounded militant hideouts and supply lines in Swat, once a tourist destination popular with Westerners until two years ago, when it was plunged into a Taliban insurgency to enforce sharia law.
The military says its troops are closing in on Mingora, the capital of Swat under Taliban control, and have issued a map showing security forces in a pincer movement of troops pushing down from the north and up from the south.
It reported "fierce clashes" in different places and said security forces were locked in street fighting in the Taliban-held towns of Kanju, two kilometres (one mile) from Mingora, and Matta, further to the north. LinkHere