Security forces are on alert after several deadly attacks in areas bordering South Waziristan [AFP]

At least five soldiers and 60 fighters were killed in the first 24 hours of fighting, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.

As many as 150,000 civilians have left the area in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault.

But there are perhaps as many as 350,000 still in the region.

Security forces captured a Taliban stronghold at Spinkai Raghzai on Saturday after the fighters withdrew from their fortifications and took refuge in nearby mountains, officials said.

Earlier, the officials reported that gun battles were taking place outside Spinkai Raghzai as well as Kalkala and Sharwangai.

On two flanks

Intelligence officials said the ground troops were advancing on two flanks and a northern front of a central part of South Waziristan controlled by the Mehsuds.

The areas being surrounded include the Taliban bases of Ladha and Makeen, the officials said.

The army says about 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 Taliban fighters, including about 1,000 Uzbeks and some Arab al-Qaeda members.

Hamid Nawaz, a former Pakistani general and military-affairs analyst, said he believed the army could complete its operations before the December snowfall.

"This is not going to be a set-piece battle ... the theatre of operations is only about 6,000sq km and there will only be pockets fo resistance.

"And efforts have been made to co-ordinate attacks with Nato troops as well as the Afghan army on the other side of the border to prevent anyone escaping."

The Pakistani offensive comes after a series of bomb attacks across the country over the past two weeks that have killed more than 170 people.

In the latest attack, at least 11 people died in two explosions near a police office in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday.

People are reported to be fleeing from the Shakoi and Zangra areas, with many moving through North Waziristan where a makeshift camp has been set up at Mir Ali.

Humanitarian angle

Wolfgang Herbinger, the country director for the World Food Programme, based in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said his organisation had readied itself for the exodus from the fighting.

"We have food stocks in nearby areas," he said.

"As a United Nations organisation, we have been preparing for quite some time. We have had to anticipate in different parts of the country, including South Waziristan, that people will be on the move."

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK, said the offensive is difficult because the attacks are sporadic and spread out.

"It's difficult to fight them everywhere," he said.

"That's why we were carrying out a softening operation through air raids and bombings. That's what we have been doing for the last four or five weeks.

"Now we think we are in a position to strike militarily on the ground in the spots we have been firing and mark them [Taliban] for attack. So I think we will be able to achieve our objective."

The US hopes that a Pakistani army operation in South Waziristan will help break much of the opposition network that threatens both Pakistan and American troops across the border in Afghanistan.

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