Chief of Army staff General Ashfaq Kayani arrives to watch a ceremony in which Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf was sworn in at the President House in Islamabad in this file photo taken on November 29, 2007.

　　ISLAMABAD, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar has said that the prime minister has given full authority to the army chief in connection with the military operation in northwestern Pakistan.

　　General Ashfaque Pervaiz Kayani has been given full authority in connection with the Peshawar operation and he could now decide whatever he deemed fit, Mukhtar was quoted Saturday by the private Geo TV as saying.

　　
　　Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani addresses the National Assembly in Islamabad March 29, 2008.

　　Mukhtar said that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a meeting with the army chief, had authorized him for taking any decision as regards operation.

　　Pakistanis are safe and the defense of Pakistan is in strong hands, Mukhtar said.

　　Meanwhile, security forces Saturday launched an offensive against Taliban militants who were threatening the main north-western city of Peshawar.

　　The crackdown in the Khyber tribal region followed increased sightings of Taliban fighters in the city, where paramilitary soldiers set up bunkers in Hayatabad, a neighborhood close to Khyber, and patrolled the streets in vehicles mounted with machineguns.

　　The historic Khyber Pass provides the main road link to Afghanistan, and the region has long been known as a den for smugglers and criminals.

　　Militants have become active in Khyber over the past year, and in recent weeks they began roaming into some neighborhoods of Peshawar.