WORLD BRIEFING / PAKISTAN

Militant attacks killed six Pakistani security forces today, officials said, a day after the local Taliban chief warned of strikes across Pakistan if the army did not stop a major offensive along the Afghan border.

The army moved into South Waziristan vowing to crush the Pakistani Taliban, a militant network it says is behind 80% of the suicide bombings in Pakistan. Washington backs the operation because the militants are believed to shelter Al Qaeda leaders and to attack Western troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mahsud said in a telephone call to an Associated Press reporter that the militants had not suffered “any significant losses” in Waziristan. He threatened to turn Pakistan into “another Afghanistan or Iraq” unless the assault stopped.