ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s interior minister said today that more than 1,000 militants had been killed in the military’s three-week-long offensive against Taliban militants in the troubled northwest.

“More than 1,000 militants including two commanders have been killed while

their training centres and bases have been destroyed,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told a press conference in Mardan, on the edge of the war zone.

“The army offensive will continue until the last militant is flushed out... the militants are on the run, they will be eliminated at any cost,” Minister Malik said after visiting a camp for people displaced by the fighting.

Security forces began pounding Lower Dir and Buner districts late last month and moved into the scenic Swat valley in early May after armed Taliban fighters advanced to within 100 kilometres of Islamabad.