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The army moved into South Waziristan more than a week ago vowing to crush the Pakistani Taliban, a militant network it says is behind 80 percent of the suicide bombings in Pakistan. An army statement Monday said soldiers were progressing on three fronts in South Waziristan, but were meeting resistance on all of them. It said that over the previous 24 hours, 19 militants and six soldiers were killed. Independent verification of army claims is very difficult because the military has blocked access to the region. Militant attacks in Pakistan have surged this month, killing more than 200 people, as the Taliban have tried to avert the offensive. The army has deployed some 30,000 troops to South Waziristan to take on an estimated 12,000 militants, including up to 1,500 foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks and Arabs. The U.N. says some 155,000 civilians have fled the region. Meanwhile, authorities announced the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind two recent bombings in the main northwest city of Peshawar. Top police official Malik Naveed Khan did not identify the suspect nor say when the arrest happened. The attacks this month killed 49 people in a market area and wounded several in a recreational facility elsewhere in the city.
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