Thousands of Civilians Flee Pakistani War Zone

Buner refugees travel by road as they flee fighting between Pakistan Army forces and the Taliban on...

Buner refugees travel by road as they flee fighting between Pakistan Army forces and the Taliban on May 6, 2009 near Swabi, Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people have fled their homes due to fighting between the Pakistan army and Taliban forces in the Northwest Frontier Province.

(Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Thousands of Pakistanis skirted burning military trucks Thursday as they fled clashes between Taliban militants and the army in the northwest, adding a humanitarian emergency to the nation's daunting challenges.

Refugees overwhelmed camps and hospitals to the south of the fighting, leading Pakistan's prime minister to make a late-night appeal Thursday for international assistance. The International Committee of the Red Cross said fighting had cut access to places where civilians were most in need.

The U.S. has praised the gathering military operation in the Swat Valley and neighboring districts where Taliban guerrillas had extended their reach to within 60 miles (100 kilometers) of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Pakistan's president, in Washington for meetings with the Obama administration, insists they can turn back a tide of rising militancy also threatening neighboring Afghanistan.

Related

Pakistan Expands Taliban Offensive

Obama: 'Difficult' Road Ahead

WATCH: Taliban Preys on Poverty

But with some 45,000 people fleeing, the pro-Western government faces a stiff task to keep an already skeptical nation behind its security forces as they respond to U.S. pressure to uproot radicals. The exodus adds to the more than 500,000 already displaced by fighting in Pakistan's volatile border region with Afghanistan.

On Thursday, several thousand men, women and children — some on foot — took advantage of an easing in the army curfew to pour through Swat's main town, Mingora, in search of safety.

Convoys of colorful trucks, cars and buses, most overflowing with people and their belongings, traveled hours over mountainous terrain to reach camps in and around the city of Mardan some 40 miles away (60 kilometers).

At the Tuberculosis Hospital in Mardan, hundreds jostled before overwhelmed volunteers to register for a tent and a handout of emergency supplies.

Yar Mohammad, a 50-year-old stone mason, said he had "poured his blood" and his best years into the development of Swat. "And now I am seeing the buildings that I have helped to construct being blown up and destroyed," he said, blaming both the Taliban and the authorities.