By Junaid Khan
KOTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani soldiers closed in on Tuesday on a Taliban headquarters in Swat, the military said, as the United Nations called for help for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting.
The offensive in Swat, 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, is seen as a test of the government's commitment to face up to a growing Taliban insurgency and comes after the United States accused it of "abdicating" to the militants.
The fighting has caused a civilian exodus from the valley, once a tourist destination, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.
At least 360,000 people have left their homes in recent days and in all about 500,000 are expected to flee. They join about 600,000 people displaced earlier from Swat and other areas because of fighting since August.
Helicopters flew soldiers into the remote Peochar valley, where the Taliban have a headquarters, a military spokesman said in a statement.
Residents said troops had also been seen moving on the ground towards Peochar, a side valley running northwest off the main Swat valley.
"It looks as if there will be a big assault as we saw many helicopters flying towards Peochar and foot soldiers were also moving there," said villager Nawaz Khan.
The offensive was launched last week when President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was in Washington assuring a nervous United States his government was not about to collapse and was committed to fighting militancy.
A February pact aimed at ending violence in Swat, that effectively handed the militants control, had raised fears of a gradual Taliban takeover of more areas in the nuclear-armed country, which is vital to U.S. efforts to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise Afghanistan.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said on Monday 700 Taliban and 20 soldiers had been killed.
Most reporters have left Swat and there was no independent confirmation of that estimate of militant casualties which was higher than figures provided by the military.
Residents and another military official said there had also been clashes in Imam Dehri, the home town of the Taliban chief in Swat, Fazlullah. Five militants were killed, the official said.
Most political parties and many members of the public support the offensive but that could change if civilians displaced in what the government say is the country's largest-ever internal migration are seen to be suffering or if many are killed.
The United Nations has warned of a protracted humanitarian crisis for a country already being propped up by a $7.6 billion (5 billion pounds) International Monetary Fund loan.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called on international support for the humanitarian effort.
"This is a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency, which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region," Guterres said in a statement.
The refugee agency has opened stockpiles of supplies to help the displaced and is airlifting in tonnes of additional emergency supplies.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on Monday that the government would soon organise a conference of aid donors to marshal funds.
Stock market investors have been unnerved by the fighting and political tension in the commercial hub of Karachi but the main index was 1.71 percent higher at 7,244.90 at 8:06 a.m. British time.
Separately, suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border, killing at least eight people, military and intelligence officials said.
The attack took place in a mountainous region of South Waziristan, a known al Qaeda and Taliban hotbed, the officials said.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider, Alamgir Bitani; Editing by Robert Birsel and Bill Tarrant)
