By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s army is one to two weeks away from winning control of all major roads in its assault on Taliban fighters in a tribal region, and will then move to take on the militants in their mountain strongholds. In the first stage of the month-old South Waziristan operation, 28,000 troops have captured key highways and all the significant towns in the region, Major General Athar Abbas said in an interview at army headquarters yesterday. “In the second phase, we go and chase and eliminate them from the pockets and their hideouts,” he said after militants attacked a spy agency office in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 18 people. The army started the campaign, the biggest yet against Islamic militant insurgents, on Oct. 17. The U.S. is pressuring Pakistan to clear the area of Taliban guerrillas, who it says are using bases there for attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban “keep calling it a tactical retreat, but in fact it was a rout,” Abbas said in Rawalpindi, the military headquarters city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad. “You don’t leave behind your personal weapons and ammunition” in an organized withdrawal, he said, as the army has found the guerrillas doing in Waziristan. More than 500 militants have been killed in the offensive, while 55 soldiers have died, he said.
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