Pakistan Military Halts Offensive in Bajaur for Ramadan

KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistan's military said it was suspending its three-week-old offensive against Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal region for the holy month of Ramadan, though it warned that any attack would be met with force.

The offensive in Bajaur, a rugged agency along the Afghan border that U.S. officials call a haven for al-Qaida, has killed more than 500 people, according to military figures, and driven an estimated 300,000 from their homes.

The pause was announced as Pakistan prepared for Ramadan, which begins Tuesday. The interior ministry said security forces would "respond vigorously" to any militant action during the suspension.

The fighting has deepened the strains in Pakistan's shaky civilian government, which is also bracing for a presidential election Saturday that the front-runner, Asif Ali Zardari, is expected to win.

Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, leads a coalition under pressure from Washington to do more against militants who use the tribal belt to attack American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The United States has stepped up its own strikes, including missile attacks by unmanned Predator aircraft and a raid by helicopter-borne commandos that Pakistani officials said killed civilians — an incursion Islamabad formally protested.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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