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BUNER, Pakistan - Pakistani troops took the main town in strategically important Buner Valley on Wednesday after dropping by helicopter behind Taliban lines, killing over 50 militants in two days of fighting, the military said.
The Taliban's advance earlier this month into a region just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital had sent shivers through Pakistan and heightened fears in the United States that the nuclear-armed Muslim state was becoming more unstable.
"We assure the nation that armed forces have the capability to ward off any kind of threat," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a news conference in Rawalpindi, the garrison town close to the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistan had used jet fighters at the start of the operation on Tuesday, as well as helicopter gunships.
"Last night after the airstrike, attack helicopters engaged the miscreants and inflicted more than 50 casualties," Abbas said, adding that one soldier had been killed in the operation.
The government's demonstration of military resolve will likely reassure U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai when they meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Washington May 6-7 to discuss regional strategy.
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