More than 670,000 flee fresh Pakistan fighting

The number of people who have fled fighting in northwest Pakistan and registered with authorities in the last 11 days has jumped to more than 670,000, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday. "The new figure of registered people since May 2 for the new influx is 670,906. That breaks down to ... 79,842 in the camps and 591,064 out of camps,'' UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Rummery said. Those who were not sheltering in camps may be renting homes, staying with friends or relatives, or camping out elsewhere, Rummery said. The total number of those displaced by the latest fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban was likely to be higher. "We recognise this is not every single person who has fled. Some people may still be waiting to register or not want to,'' said Rummery. The refugees are trying to escape the military bombardments of Islamist extremists who are dug into three districts in northwest Pakistan. Wednesday's number was up from the 501,496 people who had registered yesterday. They join another 500,000 civilians who fled previous fighting in Pakistan's troubled northwest last year, taking the total number of displaced people in the nuclear-armed Muslim country to more than one million. Meanwhile, Pakistan fighter jets and attack helicopters pounded Taliban targets in the northwest on Wednesday as President Asif Ali Zardari called for global help to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have escaped the punishing offensive in the Swat valley, fleeing Taliban fighters who have terrorised the population in a bloody campaign to enforce sharia law and expand their control. Terrified residents trapped in Mingora, the district's main town, said that militants had planted mines and were digging trenches.