Deadly clashes in NW Pakistan as peace deal unravels

A peace deal in Pakistan appeared close to unravelling on Monday as deadly fighting raged between soldiers and militants in the northwest, sparking Taliban threats of fierce resistance. Tensions are soaring between the government, which is under US pressure to extend an offensive to crush militants, and Taliban hardliners, who rejected a new Islamic appeals court created in a bid to pacify their brutal uprising. Analysts said the shaky three-month-old deal -- establishing sharia courts in a northwest region home to three million in the hope the Taliban would stop fighting and disarm -- was now hanging by a thread. Three soldiers died and five were wounded in fighting in northwest Pakistan on Monday, including an officer killed when militants ambushed an army convoy in the former ski resort of Swat, the army said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. "We vow to carry out similar attacks in future if security forces try to enter Swat," spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP. "We will give a fitting reply to security forces if Sufi Mohammad decides to revoke the deal with the government," he added, referring to the cleric who negotiated a peace deal between the two sides in February. The military said it killed seven militants, including a man they identified as "an important militant commander" named Afsar Hameed, in its latest offensive in Swat's neighbouring district of Buner. The government's decision to sign the February pact, ratified by President Asif Ali Zardari last month, was heavily criticised at home and abroad, with opponents arguing it would merely embolden the Taliban. For 10 days, military helicopter gunships and ground troops have fought hundreds of armed Taliban who thrust further south and east into the districts of Lower Dir and Buner where the deal also theoretically holds sway. The army claims to have killed scores of militants in the two districts, although their tolls are impossible to verify. Thousands of civilians are believed to have fled the army bombardment. On Sunday, the authorities slapped a curfew on Swat's main town Mingora for the first time since the agreement in an edict defied by armed Taliban who openly patrolled the streets. On the same day, local authorities found two beheaded soldiers in Swat's Taliban bastion Khwaza Khela. "Once again fear is gripping the entire town," a Mingora resident told AFP, describing militants pacing the streets with guns. "Do not give my name because the Taliban will find me and kill me." Pakistan's army confirmed armed militants marching in Mingora, which they said was a "gross violation" but said security forces were "exercising restraint to honour the peace agreement". But a provincial cabinet minister from Swat threatened the Taliban with further military offensives after they rejected the Islamic appeals court announced by the government late Saturday. "We will try to resolve issues through negotiation, but if they refuse to abide by the peace agreement, the government will have no option but launch an operation against them," said forestry minister Wajid Ali KhanAmeer Izzat Khan, spokesman for Sufi Mohammad, said peace depended on whether sharia law was implemented correctly -- which critics have argued is too subjective. "The peace agreement is almost finished now, because the military operation has been launched and the Taliban have also renewed their attacks," northwest affairs expert Rahimullah Yousafzai told AFP. Zardari, who is hoping to secure a massive US aid package, will discuss the deteriorating situation with President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday. Obama has called Zardari's government "very fragile" and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Pakistan of "basically abdicating" to the Taliban in the northwest, which they have branded the biggest terror threat to the West. According to the New York Times, the US government is increasingly worried about the vulnerability of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and is less willing to accept blanket assurances from Islamabad that the weapons are safe.