Taliban: Prepare to fight long war

Pakistan's military is continuing its ground and air offensive for an eighteenth day against entrenched Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.

The army has announced that 21 militants have been killed in the past 24 hours and that government forces are continuing to press into Taliban territory, clearing captured towns of fighters and seizing high ridges.

But a Taliban spokesman has denied that Pakistan's government has won a series of battlefield victories in its offensive, saying their strategy "is to let the army get into a trap, and then fight a long war".