The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

At least 12 civilians, including seven members of the same family, were killed Thursday in fresh clashes between troops and Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

Helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in the Swat Valley in a second day of fighting, which has brought a two-month-old peace deal in the former tourist region to the brink of collapse.

The civilians died when shells hit houses, gardens and even a golf course a day after five soldiers and 25 extremists were killed in a gunbattle sparked by a militant attack on a checkpost.

Residents said shells hit a house early Thursday in the Deolai area of Swat, killing five children and their parents.

"There had been heavy shelling overnight and when we woke up in the morning we saw Fasihul Ehsan's house destroyed, and when rubble was removed all the seven people in the house were dead," relative Jehanzeb Khan told AFP.

"We are now preparing for the burial, but facing hardships due to the curfew," Khan said. Another two men died when shells hit their houses in Deolai, while a young boy and a man working in a garden were killed in nearby Matta district, police and intelligence officials said.

A man was also killed in the crossfire between militants and security forces at a golf course in the town of Kabal, they said, adding that a total of 25 people were also wounded in the fighting.

Officials did not say if they were caused by shells fired by security forces or militants.

Separately Taliban militants set fire to two girls' schools overnight, they said.

Authorities said a curfew enforced in the area as a result of the fighting was relaxed for two hours in the morning to allow people to buy food.

Local army spokesman Major Mohammad Farooq told AFP that police had detained some suspects overnight, but had no details.

The Taliban movement warned that it would launch suicide attacks across the country if the military failed to halt the operation against followers of pro-Taliban Muslim cleric Maulana Fazlullah.

Mountainous Swat was a thriving tourist resort known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan" until last year, when Fazlullah launched a violent campaign to enforce harsh Islamic Sharia law in the region.

Under the May peace deal, the government agreed to gradually pull out troops and introduce an Islamic justice system. In exchange, the rebels said they would halt attacks and surrender arms.