district of Taliban forces by April 28. However, the military was still fighting with pockets of militant resistance in the coming weeks. Buner Assault The second phase of the operation started the same day as fighting in Lower Dir was dying down. The Pakistan Army's push to retake control of Buner, which was only away from the capital city Islamabad, started. Special Forces members belonging to Pakistan Army's 50th Airborne Division and the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group swarmed down ropes from helicopters to enter the town of Daggar, which lies in the strategically important Buna valley to the northwest of Islamabad, killing nearly 50 militants. Pakistan Army leaders hoped to trap about 500 militants in between the 50th Airborne forces and SSG Division's teams that were advancing on the ground towards Taliban positions at the valley's entrance. The fate of 75 police officers taken hostage by the Taliban in Buner the previous night remained unclear. 18 were rescued the next day but the others were still prisoners. The troops belonging to 50th Airborne Division jumped first on April 30 in Buner City between 00:48 and 01:40. The Pakistan Air Force's SS Wing's 1st SOS Squadron flew the No. 6 Squadron Globe Trotters transport aircraft where hundreds of additional members of 50th Airborne Division, Special Services Group - Navy, 4th SOS Squadron, 140th Expeditionary Marines Battalion and the 1st Commando Yildiram Battalion, SSG jumped off in the dark night of April 31, and landed in different areas of Buner where they had taken the strategic positions. The battle between the Pakistani Air Force and Taliban forces ended when the Taliban had lost a large number of their men and suffered heavy human casualties caused by the Airborne Forces of Pakistan Armed Forces. The operation in Daggar came on the third day of the Army's offensive to roll back the Taliban advance that had caused concern not just in Islamabad – which is just 65 miles away – but also in Washington. Major General Athar Abbas, a military spokesman, told reporters in Rawalpindi that the Army and Frontier Corps paramilitary units launched the operation in Buner district, building on a several-day offensive in the region. Abbas said an estimated 450 to 500 Taliban are believed active in Buner, many believed to be engaged in "criminal activities." The US had been repeatedly pressing the Pakistan government to take action, fearful that the