Pakistan military take journalists to Swat Valley to see results of military offensive

(22 May 2009) SHOTLIST THIS FOOTAGE WAS FILMED WHILST ON A MILITARY FACILITY WITH THE PAKISTANI ARMY 1. Aerial of Swat valley 2. Close-up of journalist looking through window 3. Mid of gun ship helicopter, soldier manning gun 4. Pakistani Army soldiers at army post overlooking valley 5. Reverse shot of soldier at look out 6. Close of soldier looking down barrel of gun at look out 7. Wide of Army post and soldiers 8. Various of soldiers with militants, who appear to have been apprehended, wearing bags over heads 9. Various of weapons and ammunition apparently confiscated from militants 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Major General Sajad Ghani, Pakistan Army: "At this point in time Piochar valley has been surrounded from all the directions. Civilian population has been evacuated. Very less of them were in fact already there in the valley. It was mostly occupied by the terrorists and militants. At this point in time, the ground forces coupled with the special service troops are conducting active operations inside the valley and killing and eliminating the hardcore terrorist." 11. Pakistani soldiers at post 12. Wide of army helicopter, zoom in STORYLINE: Troops are encircling Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in the Swat Valley, a Pakistani general said on Friday, as the UN appealed for 543 (m) million US dollars to ease the suffering of nearly two (m) million refugees from the fighting. With scepticism growing about the progress of the month-old army offensive in the northwestern region, the army flew a handful of reporters from foreign news organisations into Swat on Friday. An Associated Press reporter aboard the helicopter saw no cars and few people in the town of Mingora or on roads further up the valley, a former tourist haven just 60 miles (100 kilometres) from the capital, Islamabad. From the air, there was little evidence of the fierce fighting and airstrikes that the military claims have already killed more than one-thousand militants as well as some 60 soldiers. But a senior commander insisted the army was trapping militants in Mingora and Piochar, a side-valley further north that is the stronghold of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah. "At this point in time Piochar valley has been surrounded from all the directions," Major General Sajad Ghani said. "The ground forces coupled with the special service troops are conducting active operations inside the valley and killing and eliminating the hardcore terrorist," he added. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the northwest, a car bomb exploded close to a movie theatre in the city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least four people and wounding 20 others, witnesses and police officials said. It was unclear who was behind the attack, but militants have targeted movie theatres before in the region, believing them to be un-Islamic. Pakistan launched an offensive last month to halt a Taliban advance from Swat towards the capital, Islamabad, that prompted US warnings about the stability of the nuclear-armed country. While the US has praised the military operation, it is also contributing to a gathering effort to shield the government from the political fallout from the humanitarian crisis. Officials say 1.9 (m) million people have fled the fighting and more than 160-thousand are staying in sweltering camps just south of the battle zone. The rest have been taken in by relatives. The United Nations said its appeal would help provide food, schooling and health care to the multitude displaced from the Swat area and by fighting in other border regions last year. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...