Pakistan's Latest Offensive in South Waziristan (Rah-i-Nijat) - News & Discussion

[qsaark]

On whose side is US anyway? US vacates checkposts ahead of SWA operation

Monday, October 19, 2009
By Qudssia Akhlaque

ISLAMABAD: The US-led Nato forces vacated more than half a dozen key security checkposts on the Afghan side of the Pak-Afghan border just ahead of the major Pakistan Army ground offensive (code named: Rahe Nijaat) against Taliban-led militants in the volatile tribal area of South Waziristan, it is learnt.

It is feared that the American decision will facilitate Afghan Taliban in crossing over to Pakistan and support militants in striking back at the Pakistani security forces in the troubled tribal area.

Sources close to the NWFP government and military strategists involved in the planning of S Waziristan operation told The News over the weekend that the Americans vacated eight security checkposts on the Afghan side of the border just five days before the Army operation. Four of these close to South Waziristan including one each at Zambali and at Nurkha, and four in the north in the area of Nuristan where American forces recently came under violent attacks by the militants.

Latest reports indicate that the Americans have also removed some posts close to North Waziristan, which could encourage even more Afghan Taliban fighters to cross over to the Pakistan side. This has raised many eyebrows in government and military circles with points being made about “conflicting interests” and dubious American designs.

The NWFP government, civilian and military officials in the provincial capital have been astonished by this move and more so intrigued by its timing. Alarmed and concerned about its likely adverse affect on the military operation in S Waziristan where the Pakistani troops reportedly comprising 28,000 soldiers are expected to face fierce resistance from the heavily armed Taliban-led militants, the NWFP government recently alerted the relevant authorities in Islamabad about it.

Pakistan has now taken up this matter with the Americans and conveyed its serious concern about vacating the checkposts at this crucial juncture. Notably the security checkposts on the Afghan side of the border are already almost a third of what Pakistan has on its side.

Recent communication intercepts by Pakistani intelligence outfits have revealed that Taliban commander in Nuristan Qari Ziaur Rehman has invited TTP leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, former deputy of late Baitullah Mehsud, to come to Nuristan and operate from there if he finds space in Wazristan shrinking.

Experts believe the American move of vacating security checkposts on the Afghan side close to Pakistan’s border could undermine the military action by Pakistan Army. While on one hand it could offer an easy escape route to some militants, it is believed that this would facilitate movement of Afghan Taliban into Pakistan side to join hands with the al-Qaeda-backed local Taliban and other locals as well as foreign militant groups against the military action there.

Some observers see it as a tactical move by the US to ward off pressure from its own forces in Afghanistan that have been under severe attacks by the Afghan Taliban. Hence they want to provide them unhindered passage to Pakistan side, as it would help shift the main theatre of war from Afghanistan to inside Pakistan. Americans themselves have been saying that 70 per cent of area in Afghanistan is out of their control.

The Pakistani Tabiban in S Waziristan backed by al-Qaeda are joined by a large number of foreign militants including a battalion of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens and Arab fighters. According to military sources the toughest resistance is expected from an estimated 1,500 battle-hardened Uzbek fighters, equipped with highly sophisticated weapons. “The Uzbek fighters face a do or die situation with the all-out army action in the hostile mountainous area,” a senior government representative maintained.

The uninterrupted flow of sophisticated arms and funding to the foreign militants in S Waziristan has also lured many criminals to join hands with them in challenging the writ of the state, defence experts say. The presence of various foreign and local militants in the rugged terrain of South Waziristan is estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000.

Officials in the military and civil bureaucracy are cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the operation. “Either these militants will run to Afghanistan, settled areas or stand and fight to the end,” is how one key NWFP government representative summed it up.

A seemingly more realistic view from a key office holder in Peshawar is: “We are half way in containing insurgency and hopefully by end of the year major military operations will be over and 2010 will be the year of consolidating the gains made in recovering the lost ground.”

Whatever the outcome, observers believe that operation in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan became inevitable. “It became imperative to go for a military operation in South Waziristan to regain the lost space that has been used as training ground for planning and executing attacks targeting key security installations of Pakistan including the GHQ,” the Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said earlier shortly after the launch of the operation.

Despite several attempts on Sunday The News was unable to get an official version from the Pakistan Army Spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas on this alarming development. However, when the US Embassy Spokesman Richard Snelsire was contacted by this correspondent and his attention was drawn to the question of vacated checkposts he remained non-committal. When a confirmation was sought and he was asked what had prompted this move, Snelsire said he had no clue about it. “I do not have information on that, and that is outside our purview,” he noted, adding that he had not seen any reporting on that.

Source: On whose side is US anyway?

 

[Daredevil]

The Pakistani Army has struck deals with Good Taliban (or Anti-american Taliban) while fighting against bad taliban (Pakistani Taliban)

Pakistan cuts deal with anti-American militants

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD and NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writers
48 mins ago

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistan's army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday.

The deals increase the chances of an army victory against Pakistan's enemy No. 1, but indicate that the 3-day-old assault into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may have less effect than the U.S. wants on a spreading insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban.

In exchange, the army will ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because revealing their identities would compromise their work.

An army spokesman described the deal as an "understanding" with the men that they would stay neutral. The agreements underscore Pakistan's past practice of targeting only militant groups that attack the government or its forces inside Pakistan.

Western officials say South Waziristan is also a major sanctuary and training ground for al-Qaida operatives. The mountain-studded region has been under near-total militant control for years and is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

The United States has responded cautiously to the initial Pakistani strategy, publicly welcoming the offensive but saying little about the specific choice of targets.

"We have a shared goal here, and the shared goal is fighting violent extremism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday.
Kelly said he was unaware of an agreement to keep some militant factions out of the fight for now, but other U.S. officials said the strategy is not surprising or necessarily worrisome.

Because the faction loyal to Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud poses the most direct threat to the Pakistani government and army, it is the logical first target, U.S. officials briefed on the offensive said.

While a broad offensive that takes on all comers at once might be ideal, it is not practical, U.S. military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the United States has no direct role in the operations of another country.

U.S. officials are watching the offensive closely with the hope that the Pakistani army will not pull back after the initial onslaught, and will eventually widen the offensive to cover other militant factions and the more forbidding ground of North Waziristan.

The army's offensive in South Waziristan is pitting some 30,000 troops against 11,500 militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella grouping of the country's main militant factions blamed for 80 percent of the attacks in this nuclear-armed nation over the last three years.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a surge in strikes over the past two weeks that has killed more than 170 people. The attacks have included a 22-hour siege of the army headquarters and a bombing of the U.N. building in the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani security analysts said the army had little choice but to cut deals with rival Taliban factions to have a chance of success. The campaign will likely be far tougher than in the Swat Valley, a northwest region where government troops overpowered insurgents this year. The army has conducted three previous offensives in South Waziristan since 2004, all unsuccessful.
"If the army opens up multiple fronts, they will be deluged," said Khalid Aziz, a former top administrator in the northwest. "It's like having a patient suffering from multiple diseases — you tend to treat those that are life-threatening first."

The army is setting its sights on Hakimullah Mehsud, who became leader of the Pakistani Taliban after its former chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. missile strike in August.

Bahadur's area of influence lies in North Waziristan just across the border from South Waziristan, abutting land controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. He and his followers come from a different tribe than the Mehsuds, who make up the majority of the Pakistani Taliban. Nazir controls territory in South Waziristan.

Both allow their lands to be used by fighters who cross into Afghanistan and are loyal to the Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban. Omar is believed to be living in Pakistan.

As the region's British colonial rulers did decades ago, the army is exploiting tribal rivalries to try to gain control in the region. Nazir is an old-time opponent of the Mehsud tribe, while Bahadur is reportedly angry over the appointment of Hakimullah as Taliban chief.

Being able to move unimpeded through their territory gives the Pakistani army a massive boost in its current campaign.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said there was no agreement with the two men, but "there is an understanding with them that they will not interfere in this war."

He said the army "had to talk to the devil" to isolate its main target.
Asked whether the agreements were holding, he said: "Obviously, they are not coming to rescue or to help" the Pakistani Taliban.

The army said Monday that troops backed by aerial bombing were steadily advancing on three fronts into the region and meeting stiff resistance in places. It said 78 militants and nine soldiers were killed over the last three days. Militants were not available for comment, but said Sunday they had the upper hand.

It is nearly impossible to verify independently what is going on in South Waziristan because the army is blocking access to it and surrounding towns. There are no reporters traveling with the army, and few — if any — local journalists in the area.

Residents, some fleeing, reported fierce fighting and said Pakistani forces were using artillery and air attacks.

"There is lots of bombardment: on houses, on mosques, on Islamic boarding schools, on everything," said Fazlu Rehman as he arrived in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, which lies close to South Waziristan.

As many as 150,000 civilians — possibly more — have left South Waziristan in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, with several thousand over the last few days. Authorities say that up to 200,000 people may flee in the coming weeks, but don't expect to have to house them in camps because most have relatives in the region.

In Dera Ismail Khan, government employees registered hundreds of people who lined up for cash handouts and other aid.

"The situation in Waziristan is getting worse and worse every day," said Haji Sherzad Mehsud, one of the refugees.
___
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Anne Gearan and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

 

[Flint]

^It might be because they can't take on all the militant factions at once without suffering heavily,.

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

I do not see there problem getting solved easily, SWAT was smaller when they move to SW it will be difficult, plus they are reluctant to reduce forces on eastern border. Their obsession of India might spoil the party. I will like to see what will unfold.

 

[ppgj]

On whose side is US anyway? US vacates checkposts ahead of SWA operation

Some observers see it as a tactical move by the US to ward off pressure from its own forces in Afghanistan that have been under severe attacks by the Afghan Taliban. Hence they want to provide them unhindered passage to Pakistan side, as it would help shift the main theatre of war from Afghanistan to inside Pakistan. Americans themselves have been saying that 70 per cent of area in Afghanistan is out of their control.

Source: On whose side is US anyway?

makes perfect tactical sense for 3 reasons.
1. relieves american ground forces from facing up to the afghan taliban.
2. USA may be wanting to test PA sincerity in fighting the taliban both afghan and pakistani. this is particularly important in view of the kerry- lugar bill which makes it conditional to pak's sincerity in the fight against these terror groups.
3. also the US might be more keen on getting all the elements together before the drones start pounding from the air.

 

[RPK]

Pak urges NATO to share intel, seal Afghan border

fullstory

Islamabad, Oct 20 (AFP) Pakistan today urged NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan to share intelligence and seal the border as it mounts a massive offensive against Taliban militants in the lawless northwest.

Nearly 30,000 troops are pressing a three-pronged push in South Waziristan, part of the Al-Qaeda-infested tribal district bordering Afghanistan. There are more than 100,000 foreign troops under US and NATO command in Afghanistan.

Pakistan unleashed the offensive after a recent string of spectacular attacks including a 22-hour siege on the army headquarters. Pakistani troops are up against about 10,000 Tehreek-e-Taliban fighters.

Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Tariq Majid made today's call during talks with Britain's armed forces chief Jock Stirrup, a military statement said.

 

[Flint]

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Taliban guerrillas recaptured the birthplace of the Pakistani Taliban leader from the Pakistani army Tuesday, inflicting the heaviest military losses so far in Pakistan's high-stakes offensive in South Waziristan, a refuge for Pakistani extremists, Afghan insurgents and al-Qaida.

A government attempt to foment a tribal uprising against the Pakistani Taliban also failed Tuesday. In a meeting with the top Pakistani official for the tribal areas, elders of the area's Mehsud clan refused a request to form a traditional militia, known as a lashkar, to battle the Taliban who have taken over their territory.

Security officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists, said that Pakistani troops had thrust into Kotkai only to be hit by a determined counteroffensive that killed seven soldiers, including an army major, and wounded seven more.

There was no official announcement about the Kotkai clash. In a statement, the army reported that four soldiers had been killed and three wounded Tuesday in South Waziristan, but those casualties were sustained elsewhere, bringing the total to 13 soldiers killed since the operation began Saturday. Twelve "terrorists" also were killed Tuesday, the army statement said, bringing the official total to 90.

"We gave them a really tough time in Kotkai," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said, claiming that 40 to 45 soldiers had died in the battle. He said three militants were killed and four wounded in the Kotkai battle.

However, the Taliban have cemented their hold on South Waziristan by killing hundreds of traditional tribal leaders, and the tribal chiefs told Ghani that "in the current hazardous situation, it is not possible for us to support you," an official who was present told McClatchy Newspapers.

Pakistan suffers reverses in offensive against militants - World AP - MiamiHerald.com

 

[bengalraider]

Some pictures from waziristan

A Pakistani soldier carries a weapon which the military say was recovered from a cave in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban bases near the Afghan border on October 21, 2009 as the army urged NATO forces to seal the frontier to stem cross-border movement of militants. Pakistani forces launched an offensive to wrest control of the lawless South Waziristan region on October 17, 2009 after militants rocked the country with a string of bomb and suicide attacks in recent weeks, killing more than 150 people. Reuters

Pakistani soldiers prepare to fire an anti-tank gun during a battle between Pakistani security forces andTaliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

 

[bengalraider]

A Pakistani soldier uses a metal detector to search for mines in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

A heavy machine gun is seen during a battle between Pakistani security forces and Taliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

Pakistani soldiers display arms and ammunition which they say were recovered from a cave in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

 

[bengalraider]

A Pakistani soldier mans a machine gun during a battle between Pakistani security forces andTaliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

Pakistani soldiers display arms and ammunition which they say were recovered from a cave in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

A Pakistani soldier aims his RPG during a battle between Pakistani security forces andTaliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

A Pakistani soldier mans a machine gun during a battle between Pakistani security forces and Taliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

Pakistani soldiers point their weapons during a battle between Pakistani security forces andTaliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

A Pakistani soldier points his weapon during a battle between Pakistani security forces and Taliban in the South Waziristan region in this image taken from a video grab released by the Pakistani military on October 21, 2009. Reuters

 

[Vladimir79]

Taliban retakes Kotkai strategic town
By: Alsumaria TV

Security officials said that Taliban militants attacked Pakistani army and retook Kotkai, a strategic town on the road towards South Waziristan and the birthplace of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud. Meanwhile, two suicide bombing attacks took place at the Islamic University in Islamabad killing six and wounding 20 people at least. The government directly linked between the two attacks against the University and the offensive launched against Taliban. Pakistani Minister of Interior, Rehman Malik, said whether or not there had been a claim of responsibility, "all roads lead to South Waziristan".

Taliban retakes Kotkai strategic town - TRCB

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

Does anyone has pictures of damage to Pakistani forces?

 

[Vladimir79]

Taliban retake town from Pakistani Army in South Waziristan
By Bill RoggioOctober 20, 2009 9:04 PM

The Taliban have stalled the Pakistani Army's advance on one of its three major fronts in South Waziristan and retaken a town captured by the Army just yesterday.

Taliban fighters forced the Army from the town of Kotkai just one day after the military said it was secured. The Taliban claimed the Army took heavy casualties as it was ejected from Kotkai.

The retaking of Kotkai is the first visible victory for the group since the military launched its three-pronged offensive aimed at the Taliban heartlands in South Waziristan. More than 28,000 soldiers are pitted against more than 10,000 of the Taliban's best fighters.

"We gave them a really tough time in Kotkai," Azam Tariq, the new spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, told McClatchy . Between 40 and 45 Pakistani soldiers and three Taliban fighters were killed in the counteroffensive, Tariq claimed.

Kotkai is the home town of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and Qari Hussain Mehsud, Hakeemullah's senior lieutenant and trainer of suicide bombers.

Local Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed that the Army was beaten back from Kotkai but claimed only six soldiers and a major were killed during the heavy fighting.

The outcome of the battle cannot be confirmed as the military has prevented reporters from entering the war zone.

The Taliban's ability to eject a conventional force from the town is an ominous sign, observed a senior US military intelligence official who closely monitors the situation in Pakistan's northwest.

"They [the Taliban] beat back a pretty serious offensive," the official told The Long War Journal. "As an irregular force, that is nothing to sneer at, even with home field advantage."

The military has indicated that it seeks a quick victory in the offensive. Pakistani officials said they hoped to subdue the Taliban in South Waziristan in two months. One report indicates, however, that the military believes air power will enable the military to crush the Taliban in two weeks.

The battle at Kotkai will pour cold water on the notion that air power will be a substitute for infantry, US officials said.

"Hopefully Kotkai will wake up the air power advocates at GHQ [Army General Headquarters]," a US military officer told The Long War Journal. "Airpower didn't work for Israel in Lebanon in 2006, and won't solve our problems in Afghanistan. The reality is they will need boots on the ground, and will need to keep them there for a long time if they want to have a shot."

Army fails to win over the Mehsuds

Meanwhile the government has failed to win over the Mehsud tribes in an effort to isolate the Taliban, according to McClatchy . Yesterday, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani wrote a letter to the Mehsuds attempting to explain the operation and assure the leader that the tribe was not the target.

“The aim of the ongoing operation is not to target the respectable and patriot Mehsud tribes but its purpose is to liberate the Mehsud tribes from the clutches of cruel terrorists, who have already destroyed the peace of entire area,” Kiyani wrote in a letter that was later published in the Associated Press of Pakistan. “The main targets of the operation are Uzbek terrorists, foreigners as well as local terrorists.”

“I am hopeful that the Mehsud tribes will extend all possible support to Pakistan Army and will stand up against the brute forces, so that the national flag once again flutter over the homeland of Mehsuds with all its dignity,” Kiyani continued.

The Mehsuds answered the letter, saying they would not take up arms against the Taliban. "In the current hazardous situation, it is not possible for us to support you," the tribal leaders told the governor of the Northwest Frontier Province, according to McClatchy .

The Taliban have killed hundreds of tribal leaders in South Waziristan since taking control in 2004. The current tribal leaders either outwardly support the Taliban or are too fearful to act against them.

While the Taliban scored their two victories in South Waziristan, their suicide bombers conducted a successful strike in the heart of Pakistan. Two bombers, one of them possibly a female, detonated their suicide vests at the Islamic International University of Islamabad. Five students were killed when the bomber attacked a women's cafeteria and a men's sharia, or Islamic law, program.

Read more: Taliban retake town from Pakistani Army in South Waziristan - The Long War Journal

 

[Vladimir79]

Pakistan offensive against Taliban creates angry refugees

Some 30,000 refugees who fled the Pakistan Army's offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan have yet to receive food or other supplies promised by the government.
By Issam Ahmed | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 21, 2009 edition

Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan - Antimilitary feelings are running high among refugees in this town just outside South Waziristan, where more than 100,000 Pakistanis have fled from an Army offensive aimed at destroying the Pakistani Taliban network.

Many bring with them tales of indiscriminate bombings and high civilian casualties. And frustration is rising as the government fails to provide aid to those displaced by the fighting since it began Saturday.

The delay feeds concerns that, unlike during the Army's relatively successful offensive in Swat during the spring, neutral or pro-Taliban leanings among residents of South Waziristan could make it harder to hold onto any gains there. A growing refugee crisis could also undermine the government's battle for hearts and minds.

"We feel this is a war against our whole tribe," says Aslam Khan, an elderly Mehsud tribesman who arrived from the town of Sararogha two weeks ago and is attempting to register himself and nine members of his family to ensure they are eligible for aid.

Long lines, no aid

Hundreds of men like him show up every morning at the city's five refugee registration points on behalf of their extended families (one man appeared to register 33 relatives). But many are turned away after hours of waiting and told to return the next day by inundated authorities. On Wednesday, fresh registrations were halted due to a shortage of forms.

Not that registration guarantees help: An aid official admits that because of delays in verifying ID cards, none of the 30,000 refugees who registered after the conflict began on Saturday have yet received food, items such as blankets or mosquito nets, or the $60 in monthly benefits promised to them by federal information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira last week.

Despite the influx of refugees, which began as early as August, the government has not prepared any camps in which to house them. North West Frontier Province governor Owais Ghani reiterated his position on Tuesday that all of the refugees can be absorbed into relatives' homes in Dera Ismail Khan, which serves as a winter home for many South Waziristan residents.

Not so, says the aid official: "Not everyone has relatives here. So now what are we supposed to do? Some people are already out on open tents, in grounds. People are being housed in single houses with one bathroom and up to five families."

Angry at the Army

Mr. Khan, the elderly tribesman, says his bitterness is compounded by the carnage he witnessed just before fleeing his hometown. He says he saw a family of four dive for cover as a jet targeting a militant hideout flew over the town's main street; the hideout was destroyed, but the family died.

Other refugees echo Khan's hostility toward the government. Several of them voice the theory that the United States is aiding both the Pakistani Army and the Taliban, possibly to weaken Pakistan and steal its nuclear arsenal.

Such cynicism may help explain Mehsud tribal elders' rejection Tuesday of a government request to form a lashkar, or tribal militia, to take on the Taliban, a decision reported by McClatchy Newspapers.

"I don't know anything about the Taliban, but the operation is killing people," says Shakeel Ahmed, a student from Ladha, in South Waziristan. Of the dozen or so refugees interviewed, none expressed resentment toward the Taliban.

Also on Tuesday the Taliban engaged in fierce fighting with the Army in the key town of Kotkai, home of Qari Hussain, known as the master of suicide bombers. A day earlier the Army had claimed it was on the cusp of conquering the town.

As of Wednesday, nine soldiers and 91 militants had been killed, according to military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

Militants hiding among refugees?

Meanwhile, concern among local officials that militants may have snuck into Dera Ismail Khan, which has a history of violence by Sunni militants against Shiites, has put the town on knife's edge.

Army convoys racing through require all cars in their vicinity to halt or risk being shot. Mobile phone signals are being blocked by the military, while military police, pickets, and barricades guard the town's housing compound for military officers and their families.

"We're very concerned about the entry of miscreants into the city," says Commissioner Humayun Khan, the region's top administrator. He adds that the authorities are monitoring visitors to the town and host families have been told they will be held responsible for those in their care.

All of this contributes to a tense atmosphere. "Talibanization has been occurring here for some years now, and most people are afraid to go out in the evenings," says Usman Elahi, a local engineer. All four local cinemas were boarded up two years ago for fear of targeting by extremists groups, he adds.

The tension permeates other parts of the country as well. Schools and colleges throughout Pakistan remained shut on Wednesday following two suicide bombings that hit the Islamic University of Islamabad and killed eight people, including the two bombers.

Pakistan offensive against Taliban creates angry refugees | csmonitor.com

 

[Flint]

Does anyone has pictures of damage to Pakistani forces?

There's media blackout. Only ISPR releases pictures.

 

[Flint]

Pakistan captures Taliban chief's hometown

By S.H. Khan (AFP) – 1 hour ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan's army said Saturday it had captured Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud's hometown after fierce fighting as it pressed a major offensive against the Islamists into a second week.

Security sources said they had overrun Kotkai overnight after three days of aerial bombardments which had underlined the huge challenge facing the military in taking on the Taliban in their tribal heartland in the northwest.

With the militants continuing to carry out attacks country-wide since the army assault began, including one Friday outside an air force base, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the unrest had hit every sector of society.

Although figures are impossible to verify, the army says more than 140 militants and 20 troops have been killed in the week-long army offensive to date.

While no casualty figures were immediately available from Kotkai, several security officials said the fighting there was over.

There has been no word on the whereabouts of Mehsud since the operation began.

"Security forces took control of Kotkai overnight and a clearance operation is in progress," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity, describing the capture as "a major breakthrough".

Another security official said that ground forces had surrounded Kotkai for the last three days as jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant positions.

"Security forces entered Kotkai late Friday after they had secured important heights behind it," the official said.

The army launched the drive last Saturday, pitting around 30,000 troops against an estimated 10,000-12,000 Taliban fighters where Al-Qaeda-linked militants are believed to have plotted attacks against the West as well as in Pakistan.

The army had promised to make the Taliban leadership a particular target of their offensive and sealed off the main road into Kotkai last weekend.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwest tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.

Although the government has said the offensive will deal a decisive blow to the militants, the rebels have continued to carry out attacks in Pakistani cities since the start of the operation, with the military a major target.

On Friday, a bomb attack outside a Pakistani Air Force base killed eight people, six civilians and two air force personnel. On Thursday in Islamabad gunmen killed a brigadier and his driver.

Nearly 200 people have been killed in attacks this month alone.

"The country is engaged in a war to free the nation from the menace of terrorism that has destroyed the peace of the land, bruised the economy and most importantly threatened the freedom of our people," Gilani told a meeting of his top security officials late Friday, according to a government statement.

"The wave of militancy has adversely affected every segment of society."

Addressing the same meeting, chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani said "the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan is moving ahead successfully towards their desired objective while trying to ensure minimum collateral damage".

His comments came after Jacques de Maio, the International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations for South Asia, said there had been "a sharp and extremely worrying increase in the number of civilian casualties."

However, the operation has retained cross-party support in Pakistan and won praise from the United States, which has grown increasingly alarmed at the security situation in a nuclear-armed nation which borders Afghanistan.

Announcing plans for both himself and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit soon, Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region, said the US is "very impressed with the Pakistani resolve".

"They know what the stakes are. And having spent a lot of time with General Kayani and his colleagues, I know how determined they are," Holbrooke told reporters in Washington.

 

[Flint]

More updates:

Amnesty International accuses Pakistani Army of collective punishment of the Mehsud tribe...while Red Cross workers are being denied access to Waziristan....

....some details of the PA forces being used:

The Pakistani force conducting the Waziristan operation comprises about 30,000 soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division and 9th Infantry Division of the army's XI Corps, based in Peshawar, and 10,000 members of the Frontier Corps, which operates in western tribal areas, as well as 500 Special Services Group commandos and two army aviation squadrons, according to the briefing.

..... US is providing intelligence, survelliance and drone support....

 

[Pintu]

The Associated Press: Army captures Pakistani Taliban leader's hometown

Army captures Pakistani Taliban leader's hometown

By ASIF SHAHZAD (AP) – 16 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD — Soldiers captured the strategically located hometown of Pakistan's Taliban chief Saturday after fierce fighting, officials said, the army's first major prize as it pushes deeper into a militant stronghold along the Afghan border.

A suspected U.S. missile killed 22 people elsewhere in the northwest, but apparently missed a top Taliban figure, authorities said.

Pakistan's eight-day-old offensive in the Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold of South Waziristan is considered its most critical test yet in the campaign to stop the spread of violent Islamist extremism in this nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied country. The army operation has prompted a wave of retaliatory attacks by militants this month that have killed some 200 people.

The battle for Kotkai town took several days and involved aerial bombardment as soldiers captured heights around the town. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said troops were now ridding the town of land mines and roadside bombs planted by the insurgents.

Kotkai is symbolically important because it is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain. It also lies along the way to the major militant base of Sararogha, making it a strategically helpful catch.

"Thank God, this is the army's very big success," Abbas said. "The good news is that (communications) intercepts show that there are differences forging among the Taliban ranks. Their aides are deserting them."

Pakistan is under intense international pressure to clear its tribal areas of insurgents, many of whom are blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The government has pressed ahead in South Waziristan despite a wave of violence that has put the nation on edge. Bombings on Friday alone killed 24 people, including 17 headed to a wedding.

The army said Saturday that three more soldiers had died, putting the army's death toll at 23, and 21 more militants had been killed, putting their overall death toll at 163.

Access to the tribal belt is severely restricted, making independently verifying the army's information all but impossible.

The U.S. has launched scores of missile strikes at militant targets in the tribal belt over the past year, killing several top militants including former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The latest strike hit Chuhatra village in the tribal region of Bajur, local government official Mohammad Jamil said.

The missile hit a hide-out of the militants that included a tunnel. The target appeared to be Faqir Mohammad, a prominent Taliban leader, but he is believed to have escaped, Jamil said. Most of the 22 killed were Afghan nationals, he said.

Pakistan formally protests the missile strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and raise sympathy for the Taliban, while the U.S. rarely discusses the attacks. Analysts believe the two sides have a secret deal allowing the strikes.

The U.S. has shown no sign of easing the drone-fired attacks even when Pakistan is waging its own fight in the tribal areas. Asked if the missile attacks are a distraction or help, the army spokesman said Pakistan would prefer to go it alone.

"We do not want any assistance or interference from outside," Abbas said.

He further added that a mysterious explosion Wednesday in North Waziristan — initially described by intelligence officials as a suspected U.S. missile attack — had turned out to be a blast caused when explosives being loaded onto a vehicle accidentally detonated.

The U.N. says some 155,000 civilians have fled the region. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday that it is worried about civilians left behind, but it has no way to verify claims about their status because it has no presence there.

"We want access both to the areas affected by the fighting and also to the people arrested as part of the operation," said Sebastien Brack, a Red Cross spokesman in Islamabad.

The army has deployed some 30,000 troops to South Waziristan against about 12,000 Taliban militants, including up to 1,500 foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks and Arabs.

Hours after the missile strike, a military helicopter crashed in the Bajur tribal region, killing three officials, the army said, adding that the crash was an accident, not caused by any militant attacks.

Associated Press writers Habib Khan in Khar, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Nahal Toosi in Islamabad and Hussain Afzal in Parachinar contributed to this report.

 

[Pintu]

Pakistani Forces bombs Taliban positions in South Waziristan , Reuters link :

Pakistan forces bomb Taliban in South Waziristan | Reuters

Video link of Reuters regarding recapturing of Taliban Town

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=113592


Regards

 

[ppgj]

Waziristan Or Bust
Ahmed Rashid

Madrid: After nine suicide attacks in just 11 days that killed 160 people, the Pakistan army has finally started its long awaited offensive in
South Waziristan where the Pakistani Taliban are based. The success of the offensive could be critical for the fate of Pakistan which is financially broke and politically paralysed.

The spate of attacks could have been designed to prevent or delay the army offensive, but they also aimed to topple the government, impose an Islamic state and, if possible, get hold of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The recent attacks have proved more deadly than those in the past because they took place in three of the country's four provinces, involving not just Taliban tribesmen from the Pashtun ethnic group, but extremist Punjabi and Kashmiri factions. Moreover, several within the militant leadership had direct connections to the army or the ISI. Police officials say that the Rawalpindi and Lahore attacks had help from inside because the terrorists were able to bypass the stringent security measures in place.

While the armed forces are unwilling to admit what many Pakistanis now believe that there is some degree of penetration by extremist sympathisers within its ranks the civilian government refuses to admit that the largest province of Punjab and especially its poverty-hit southern part has become the major new recruiting ground for militants.

The Punjab provincial government is run by Shabaz Sharif, the brother of Nawaz Sharif and leader of the opposition in the country. The Sharif brothers who ruled the country twice in the 1990s are known to have close ties with the leaders of several militant groups, including Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba whose militants carried out the massacre in Mumbai last year. The Sharifs have refused repeated requests by the Americans, British, Indians and the federal government to crack down on militancy in south Punjab where it is strong and providing recruits for the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the federal government has suffered increasingly fraught relations with the army. At the height of the suicide attacks, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani chose that moment to blast the civilian government for agreeing to a $7.5 billion five-year aid package from the US for civilian and developmental purposes. The army was furious that the government had agreed to US-imposed conditions, which only insisted that there be civilian control of the army, democracy be maintained and the fight against extremism continued. The army with its deep tentacles in the Pakistani media and among opposition politicians, whipped up a storm of public opinion against the deal. Neither the army nor the politicians seemed to notice that the country is nearly bankrupt, barely subsisting on life support loans from the International Monetary Fund.

The civilian government has also tried repeatedly to end the long running separatist insurgency in Balochistan province by declaring ceasefires and the promise to hold talks with insurgent leaders. However, Baloch leaders accuse the army of sabotaging any such political reconciliation by continuing to assassinate or carry out forced disappearances of Baloch activists.

Meanwhile, as the policy review over Afghanistan and Pakistan continues in the White House, both the army and government are being directly accused by US officials of continuing to harbour the Afghan Taliban leadership. As long as only British and Canadian troops in Helmand and Kandahar faced the effects of the Taliban's safe sanctuaries in Pakistan's Balochistan province, the former Bush administration was quiet. But now that there are over 10,000 US marines in Helmand and Kandahar who are taking casualties, the Obama administration has made the sanctuary issue a major plank in its future relations with Pakistan.

But the dithering in Washington over the future of US policy towards Afghanistan is leading to greater justification by Pakistan and other neighbours of Afghanistan to hedge their bets for the future in case the Americans withdraw or reduce their commitment, by backing once again their favourite Afghan proxies just as they did during the 1990s civil war.

Pakistan has been saving the Afghan Taliban leadership for just such an eventuality. But now Iran, Russia, India and the Central Asian states are all looking at their future in the country in the light of a US lack of resolve to stay the course in Afghanistan. US relations with Pakistan's military remain troubled everyone knows that it is still the army and not the civilian government that calls the shots when it comes to policy towards India and Afghanistan.

President Asif Zardari is known to want peace and trade with India, an end to interference in Afghanistan, improved ties with Iran and better relations and more aid from the West to strengthen the economy and democracy. However, Zardari's attempts to build up public support for these logical civil demands have been stymied because of public disillusionment with the civilian government.

The key to future stability is to bring the army, civilian government and the opposition onto one page with a common agenda to fight extremism, while amicably resolving other internal disputes, but so far that looks extremely unlikely.

The writer is a Pakistani journalist and author.

Copyright: Yale Centre for the Study of Globalisation.

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