Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s army killed 60 Taliban militants in its first full day of operations in their stronghold of South Waziristan while five soldiers died in the offensive, the military said.

Soldiers secured “tactical heights” and destroyed six anti-aircraft gun positions in different regions during the last 24 hours, according to a statement on the military’s Web site today. Eleven soldiers were injured.

The offensive is the most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who also attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is targeting the headquarters of a major Taliban faction, the Tehrik-e- Taliban, in South Waziristan, where about 1,500 guerillas are based, military spokesman Athar Abbas said, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

The military, in its ground and air attacks that began on Oct. 16, aims to “dismantle the network” of the group, loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud, Abbas said. The militants of the group account for 80 percent of terrorist activities in the country, he said.

‘Won’t Succeed’

“This offensive will not succeed,” Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management, a New Delhi- based research group, said today in a telephone interview. “The army needs to engage the Taliban militants long-term on the ground. Taliban militants are regrouping elsewhere in the country and they are attacking security establishments.”

Militants loyal to the late Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. Taliban militants in South Waziristan have been surrounded by soldiers and all the roads leading to the region has been closed, Abbas said.

Civilians were not being targeted and in some areas people “raised white flags and they were left off after search,” the military said on its Web site.

Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Oct. 16 that as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations in South Waziristan. He didn’t discuss what plans the government has for housing the refugees.

‘Families Fleeing’

About 24,000 people left their homes in South Waziristan for the two neighboring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank last week in anticipation of the offensive against the Taliban, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Oct. 16.

While some may be seasonal, weather-related migration, “most families are fleeing the expected bombardments,” according to the UN refugee agency’s statement. Earlier this year, 2 million people fled from the districts of Swat, Buner, Shangla and Dir amid an army offensive, although the agency doesn’t expect an outflow of refugees on the same scale from South Waziristan.

The government said last week it had approved the offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to decide when to strike. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan.

Guerrilla Attacks

Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing Oct. 16 in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said the guerrillas had inflicted “heavy casualties” on the military forces in the Waziristan operation, the Associated Press reported today. “We will defend our land till our last man and our last drop of our blood. This is a war bound to end in the defeat of the Pakistan army,” the agency quoted him as saying.

Pakistan has not been able to kill or capture any of the Taliban leaders, Sahni said. Mehsud died in a U.S. missile strike in August and Pakistan’s military campaign against the Taliban hasn’t resulted in a “major success” so far, he said.

Pakistan may have to commit more troops to fight Taliban militants in South Waziristan, an area which is difficult for the soldiers to access, Indranil Banerjie, director of National Security and Political Risk Research and Education said today in a telephone interview from the north Indian city of Noida, in Uttar Pradesh state. “In the Swat operations the army used a lot of air strikes,” he said. “In South Waziristan, because of the terrain, you need to fight the enemy on the ground.”

Taliban Base

South Waziristan is a mountainous land of 6,620 square kilometers (2,550 square miles) with a population of about 500,000. Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf deployed troops in the tribal areas in 2003 after the U.S. said Taliban militants based in the region were launching attacks at coalition forces based in Afghanistan.

The region is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who have had autonomy under an agreement with the government signed in 1948, a year after the country’s independence from Britain.

To contact the reporter on this story; Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at kkhan8@bloomberg.net Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 18, 2009 13:44 EDT