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The Pakistani military says it has seized Taliban bases during the first day of a ground offensive in South Waziristan.
At least five soldiers and 11 fighters were killed in the fighting, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.
As many as 150,000 civilians have left the area in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault.
But there are perhaps as many as 350,000 still in the region.
Security forces captured a Taliban stronghold at Spinkai Raghzai on Saturday after the fighters withdrew from their fortifications and took refuge in nearby mountains, officials said.
Earlier, the officials reported that gun battles were taking place outside Spinkai Raghzai as well as Kalkala and Sharwangai.
Intelligence officials said the ground troops were advancing on two flanks and a northern front of a central part of South Waziristan.
The areas being surrounded include the Taliban bases of Ladha and Makeen, the officials said.
Army assessment
The army says about 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 Taliban fighters, including about 1,000 Uzbeks.
The Pakistani offensive had been much talked about. It comes after a series of bomb attacks across the country over the past two weeks that have killed more than 170 people.
In the latest attack, at least 11 people died in two explosions near a police office in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday.
PHOTO CAPTION
Pakistan soldiers patrol a street during a curfew in Bannu, a town on the edge of Pakistan's tribal belt Waziristan.
Agencies
