Earlier this week, Islamabad finally declared an all out war on the Taliban, which had taken over the North Western part of Pakistan. The situation has become so bad that Islamabad is currently preparing for a humanitarian crisis: hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the country’s tribal (Swat Valley) region  have fled or are expected to flee any moment now.

‘The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and Pakistani officials say that about half a million people have been displaced in the last few days since the Pakistani government launched a major offensive against the Taliban,’ Al Jazeera reports.

Unicef says that aide is needed to help locals deal with the fighting. 500.000 have fled in recent days, another 500.000 left earlier already.

That is bad, of course, but Pakistan offensive in itself is relatively good news. Combined with the American surge in Afghanistan, the Taliban are suddenly forced to fight a defensive rather than an offensive war. And that on two fronts.