Fierce fighting has broken out as Pakistani troops battle to gain control of the key militant town of Kotkai in South Waziristan.
The army said it had secured the heights around Kotkai, home of Qari Hussain, the man reportedly responsible for training Taliban suicide bombers. Up to 100,000 civilians have fled the conflict zone, according to the army.
The army say they have killed nearly 80 militants so far. The Taliban claim not to have lost a single fighter. Reports say that in the course of fighting overnight soldiers briefly took control of Kotkai. The town is also thought to be the home of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
But in the morning, the Taliban launched a major attack in the area, destroying army checkpoints and killing seven soldiers, local officials said. The officials said four Taliban militants were also killed. Reports from the region remain sketchy as the army is denying journalists access to South Waziristan.
Fighting is continuing across the South Waziristan area and both sides are using heavy weapons to bombard each other's positions, the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in the nearby town of Dera Ismail Khan says. The army has put up checkpoints in Manzai in the west, Jandola in the east, Razmak in the north and Wana in the south-west.
The army has deployed heavy artillery and is using them to bombard Taliban positions in the nearby areas. The military says it has dropped leaflets from helicopters urging local tribesman to rise up against the militants.
But the exodus of civilians from conflict areas in South Waziristan has continued. The flow of refugees was unabated on Tuesday and about 8,000-10,000 people were expected to register themselves as displaced, social welfare officials told the BBC.
But officials have warned of several difficulties in setting up camps for those displaced. A shortage of registration forms meant that new arrivals were not being offered aid and the conservative social customs of the people pouring out of the region also presented difficulties in accommodating them, officials said.
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