Curfew lifts, more flee Pakistan's war-torn Swat Valley

Thousands of civilians were streaming out of Pakistan's conflict-ridden Swat Valley Sunday after the government temporarily lifted a curfew in the region.

Military officials said they were giving people in at least three districts seven hours to leave ahead of planned strikes against Taliban hideouts.

Hundreds of thousands of peopleleft Swat in the past week to escape an escalation of fighting between government security forces and Taliban militants.

The military said it killed about 200 militants on the weekend in rural regions of Swat and other areas.

The army says 12,000 to 15,000 troops in Swat face 4,000 to 5,000 militants, including small numbers of foreigners and hardened fighters from the South Waziristan tribal region.

The latest exodus, mostly affecting residents in the towns of Mingora, Kambar and Raheemabad, was made more difficult because the military refused to allow privately owned vehicles to enter the valley, forcing some to leave on foot or with donkey-pulled carts.

Many tried to take as many belongings as they could with them, including livestock.

"What we're seeing is suffering on a massive scale, and it's just getting worse," said Jeff Hall, an aid worker for World Vision in Pakistan.

"Those who arrive at the camps face some pretty horrible conditions. The heat here is blistering, there's little shade, and the mosquitoes are out in full force. Everywhere we went, we saw children covered in welts from the mosquitoes.

"While the camps we saw were generally well organized, health, education, water, and sanitation services are at an absolute bare minimum," he told CBC News.

As many as one million people have been displaced by the conflict since August, according the United Nations' refugee agency.

Fighting intensified after a peace deal struck last February between the regional government and hardline cleric Sufi Muhammad failed to takehold.

The deal would have allowed for Islamic courts in the valley in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. By April, it was clear the Taliban would not lay down arms after the cleric complained of government inaction in implementing Islamic, or Sharia, law.