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

Elmo

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Bajaur and Mohmand

Bajaur: The TTP’s naib amir here has been Maulvi Mohammad Faqir. The latter was part of the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi and came to the forefront after the head of the latter organisation, Maulvi Sufi Mohammad, was arrested on his way back from Afghanistan in 2001. The only other prominent organisation in the area is the Jaish-e-Islami (formerly Lashkar-e-Islam), a splinter group of the TTP headed by Maulvi Waliur Rehman.
The Bajaur Operation was conducted last year to wrest control of Loyesam, near Khar and had come about after intense US pressure. Bajuar is the agency which is used most frequently by the militants to cross into Afghanistan.


Mohmand: Even though a stronghold of the TTP, it is one of the three agencies – the other two being Kurram and Khyber – where foreigners were not present. More strikingly, the leadership in Mohmand is derived from the local residents rather than outsiders, for instance, the TTP commander Omer Khalid belongs to the Safi tribe from Safi tehsil bordering Bajaur Agency.
 

Vladimir79

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Pakistan not prosecuting this war

Pakistan Hasn’t Taken Taliban Redoubts: Ex-Commander

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s capture of Taliban- controlled towns in South Waziristan may have limited strategic value unless soldiers pursue militants into their mountainous hideouts, said a former special forces commander.

“Infantry forces are moving along the main roads and not up into the side valleys,” ex-army brigadier Javed Hussain said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. With winter snows only weeks away, the offensive has stuck to three highways, he said.

Troops are engaged in street-to-street fighting in Ladha, the military said today, and 30 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours in the region. The army had cleared a major part of Sararogha in one of the battle zone’s three main valleys, it said in its latest report on the 19-day-old campaign.

Soldiers are trying to take control of the South Waziristan homeland of the Mehsuds, an ethnic Pashtun tribe that supplies the core of the largest Taliban force, about 10,000 fighters.

The most secure areas for guerrillas are in two forested mountain ranges, one west of Sararogha that includes the Asman Manza valley. The other is the Shawal range, near the Afghan border, with peaks exceeding 3,700 meters (11,000 feet).

The Taliban say their forces are falling back deliberately before advancing troops to fight what spokesman Azam Tariq called a “long war,” the Associated Press reported yesterday. Areas that “the army is claiming to have won are being vacated by us” to draw the army into a trap deep inside South Waziristan, he said.

Escape Routes

Accounts of the fighting are difficult to confirm as Pakistan bars foreigners from the tribal areas and local journalists have been forced out by the government and Taliban.

The army has said it dropped groups of soldiers onto strategic mountain ridges to protect its advance. Those forces are too small to enter the forested valleys and ravines where the Taliban will regroup, Hussain said.

Pakistan says the offensive in South Waziristan has cut off escape routes to prevent the Taliban from fleeing in large numbers. The army began the operation, its largest against Islamic militants, on Oct. 17, and said it has killed about 300 guerrillas. The Taliban has responded with suicide bombings and attacks that have killed more than 300 people.

Pakistan Hasn?t Taken Taliban Redoubts: Ex-Commander (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
 

Vinod2070

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Taliban says it will trap Pakistani army

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A Taliban spokesman denied Tuesday that Pakistan has won a series of battlefield victories in its offensive in tribal South Waziristan, saying the militants are drawing government soldiers into a trap.

"We are prepared for a long war," Azam Tariq told an Associated Press reporter by telephone. "The areas we are withdrawing from, and the ones the army is claiming to have won, are being vacated by us as part of a strategy. The strategy is to let the army get in a trap, and then fight a long war."

Tariq also rejected army claims that hundreds of militants have been killed, saying only 11 have died.

In mid-October, the Pakistani government launched an offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, the main stronghold in the country of both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The military says it has pressed deep into Taliban territory and captured some Taliban bases. The offensive has drawn retaliatory militant attacks across Pakistan.

A few hours after Tariq's claim, the army announced that 21 militants had been killed in the past 24 hours in South Waziristan and that government forces were continuing to press into Taliban territory. It said in a statement that one government soldier had died in the past day.

What is actually happening is impossible to confirm. Pakistan has effectively sealed off the tribal areas, semiautonomous regions where the central government has minimal authority. Journalists are allowed near combat areas only on carefully choreographed military trips.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For Elmo: Now it sounds to me like your ISPR guy. :wink:
 

Elmo

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Hey Vinod... I wish I had a guy let alone an ISPR guy... "your ISPR guy" didn't sound right ;)
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I'll just break up what the articles have been stating, especially with reference to Brig. Javed Hussain's analyses.

1. Pakistan’s capture of Taliban- controlled towns in South Waziristan may have limited strategic value unless soldiers pursue militants into their mountainous hideouts, said a former special forces commander. “Infantry forces are moving along the main roads and not up into the side valleys,” ex-army brigadier Javed Hussain said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. With winter snows only weeks away, the offensive has stuck to three highways, he said.

There are various ways of looking at the strategy, which commanders such as Hussain consider to be part of conventional warfare: coming from three sides, well-knowing where your enemies are and engaging with them in pitch battles. However, the battle against the Taliban is not conventional (for example a war between India and Pakistan). It's unconventional warfare, where the enemy's upper hand is the hit-and-run type attacks.

According to them, the strategical surprise was lost because the operation had been announced two months in advance. the only other was tactical surprise. Now there are a couple of approaches to consolidating a region (please realise that this is contrasted with reforms that are part of the political package and the difficult phase of any counter-insurgency). The forces can thence (a) come from three sides and converge at a central location (which the PA is doing, expected to converge its three prongs at Makeen), (b) land at mountain tops, secure them, descend into the valley and then move outwards (which the brig. here proposes) and (c) do not look at large swathes that need to conquered, rather look at smaller units, such as tehsils and subtehsils, which can be taken control of and then coalesce these areas.

Now the PA has opted for the first choice which sorta makes sense given the mixed terrain of Waziristan agency, both arid, plain land combined with mountainous regions (mind you, this I am speculating). You can secure tops, which the PA did in Swat by landing the SSG forces, but this is resource intensive. So between (a) and (b), (a) is a likelier choice.

(may be some MP here can comment on it).


The Taliban say their forces are falling back deliberately before advancing troops to fight what spokesman Azam Tariq called a “long war,” the Associated Press reported yesterday. Areas that “the army is claiming to have won are being vacated by us” to draw the army into a trap deep inside South Waziristan, he said.

Now this is a moot-point and is not a new problem. Guerillas rarely engage in pitch-battles... they would rather vacate their posts and hide than fight and this is exactly what happened in the earlier operations. They never give resistance to an army heading their way. [I don't know how much you are into COIN but there is an excellent report by Jeffery Dressler on the US experience in Afghanistan's (S-2 had forwarded it to me). here's a link Securing Helmand: Understanding and Responding to the Enemy | Institute for the Study of War)

While the militants are playing by the book, great risks are associated with it. The PA has seen a turnaround in Swat; the militants merged with the people, but the intelligence they are receiving now is helping them pin-point the culprits. The Taliban in SWA are assuming no one will snitch on them, but given the history of the area and its people, that is highly unlikely. Comprising mostly of poor, down-trodden tribesmen, they are known for their fickle allegiances. Its only a matter of time and the kind of money pumped into the region by the state that will factor highly.



What is actually happening is impossible to confirm. Pakistan has effectively sealed off the tribal areas, semiautonomous regions where the central government has minimal authority. Journalists are allowed near combat areas only on carefully choreographed military trips.

Okay.... umm a bit of an exaggeration there. The whole of FATA has not been sealed off. Only South Waziristan has been. And yes... the bit about not having embedded journalists is something that the PA needs to work on.
 

Vinod2070

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I think you have done a good analysis. The PA has a tough operation on its hands and the Taliban just has to melt away and regroup after the PA is back. PA can't sustain itself for long there!

So yes, the Taliban does seem to hold all the aces. I am waiting for more details but as of now things don't look too promising for Pakistan.
 

Elmo

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I think you have done a good analysis. The PA has a tough operation on its hands and the Taliban just has to melt away and regroup after the PA is back. PA can't sustain itself for long there!

So yes, the Taliban does seem to hold all the aces. I am waiting for more details but as of now things don't look too promising for Pakistan.

PA can sustain itself for long there actually if it keeps its infantry men on the ground rather than going back to divisional headquarters, the state pumps loads of cash and negotiates with indiviual tribes (which is being done even currently with teh Waziris and Bhittanis who flank the Mehsuds), there is intensive training, but firstly revival, of the khasadars.

It's not just the PA, it's also about the US. It has not been able to hold ground in Afghanistan, and given the porous nature of the Durand Line, there has been cross-border movement of these insurgents.

Insurgencies are not fought by armies, they are fought by reforms.
 

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Well I don't see any reforms going on. All I see is a concerted effort to blame India for the whole thing, and continue the same old policies.

The US is probably going to strike a deal with the Taliban and leave. They are clearly losing ground every day. Once they're gone, its happy days again.
 

Vladimir79

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I hope it doesn't turn out like Swat. Pakistan Army took heavy losses and had many units desert. With a much longer logistics train and harder terrain this time, it would be much easier to cut troops off from supply and communication. With the limited numbers trying to cover so much hard terrain will make ambush much more likely. If they don't plan on going outside the highways and towns, they will never find them until they are ambushed. Having set up ambushes myself, it is not such a hard thing to do mountainous terrain like S. Waziristan which is even better than Chechnya.
 

Vinod2070

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PA can sustain itself for long there actually if it keeps its infantry men on the ground rather than going back to divisional headquarters, the state pumps loads of cash and negotiates with indiviual tribes (which is being done even currently with teh Waziris and Bhittanis who flank the Mehsuds), there is intensive training, but firstly revival, of the khasadars.
All that can be reversed by the Taliban in no time once the major operations cease. Sustaining there for long is not what the PA is looking at, as per what I have read so far. They seem to want to punish the Mehsuds, get a new more pliable leadership and get out.

Even achieving that may not be easy with this operation.

It's not just the PA, it's also about the US. It has not been able to hold ground in Afghanistan, and given the porous nature of the Durand Line, there has been cross-border movement of these insurgents.
Agree. The Taliban is going to use it to its advantage.

Insurgencies are not fought by armies, they are fought by reforms.
Well, both are required. Just one will not do, not at this juncture.

Is Pakistan really looking at the reforms? I fail to see any evidence.
 

Elmo

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All that can be reversed by the Taliban in no time once the major operations cease. Sustaining there for long is not what the PA is looking at, as per what I have read so far. They seem to want to punish the Mehsuds, get a new more pliable leadership and get out..
Well it better not get in and get out. I am hoping it has learnt its lesson well from all the operations it has conducted so far.

The PA wants to sustain it but not on its shoulder... it think like an army not a policing force.



Well, both are required. Just one will not do, not at this juncture.

Is Pakistan really looking at the reforms? I fail to see any evidence.
The US pressure will make it do it. There some stringent strings attached to all the aid that is coming our way. Look at the way money is being diverted to Swat, which hitherto relied on tourism and small agri and mining industries.
 

Elmo

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I hope it doesn't turn out like Swat. Pakistan Army took heavy losses and had many units desert. With a much longer logistics train and harder terrain this time, it would be much easier to cut troops off from supply and communication. With the limited numbers trying to cover so much hard terrain will make ambush much more likely. If they don't plan on going outside the highways and towns, they will never find them until they are ambushed. Having set up ambushes myself, it is not such a hard thing to do mountainous terrain like S. Waziristan which is even better than Chechnya.

hey... for me in Pakistan, my primary source of news is the ISPR. could you give links to the news reports of army units desrting and the PA taking heavy losses?

The army and the Frontier Constabulary faced many ambushes till 2007 till the new IG-FC took over and he made some serious reversals in their training. The ambushes were particularly demoralising and going by the experience of the British in the tribal areas a century ago should have been expected. The PA could have learnt a lo of following the Tribal Warfare Manual, but alas.
 

Vinod2070

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Well it better not get in and get out. I am hoping it has learnt its lesson well from all the operations it has conducted so far.

The PA wants to sustain it but not on its shoulder... it think like an army not a policing force.
That would mean building capacity for the paramilitary forces. A long process. Like India created the Rashtriya Rifles for relieving the army in Kashmir. Took years.

In the meanwhile, PA has to do the job whatever it may think. It is not bigger than the country.

The US pressure will make it do it. There some stringent strings attached to all the aid that is coming our way. Look at the way money is being diverted to Swat, which hitherto relied on tourism and small agri and mining industries.
Well, the execution has to be seen. I don't mean to sound negative here but it is not going to be easy given the history.
 

Vladimir79

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hey... for me in Pakistan, my primary source of news is the ISPR. could you give links to the news reports of army units desrting and the PA taking heavy losses?
US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal the Indian assessment is "accurate."

The Indian assessment said that more than 370 soldiers have been killed and some soldiers have deserted since the operation against Mullah Fazlullah's Taliban forces in Swat, Dir, and Buner began almost two months ago. India Today put the number of soldiers that have deserted at more than 900.

Read more: Pakistani military facing tougher fight in northwest than reported - The Long War Journal


The army and the Frontier Constabulary faced many ambushes till 2007 till the new IG-FC took over and he made some serious reversals in their training. The ambushes were particularly demoralising and going by the experience of the British in the tribal areas a century ago should have been expected. The PA could have learnt a lo of following the Tribal Warfare Manual, but alas.
FC Corps was only the beggining of your problems. When you have mass desertions in three regular army infantry brigades, you just missed a near disaster. This offencive could push Pak troops past the breaking point.
 

Vinod2070

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No clue to militants' future plans


AZIZ-UD-DIN AHMAD

ARTICLE (November 04 2009): Events unfolding in South Waziristan leave one with a distinct sense of deja vu. As the army fights its way into one TTP stronghold after another, it finds that the bulk of the militants' fighting force and top commanders have evaporated in thin air. This is exactly what one had seen happening in Swat. While the militants have lost the area, they have succeeded, as before, in saving their manpower to fight another day.

Since October 17, when the three-pronged operation was launched, the army has captured about 90 percent of the area under TTP control, including major militant centres. Prominent among these are Kotkai, the hometown of Hakeemullah Mehsud and suicide bombing master trainer Qari Hussain, and Kaniguram, which is the second largest city of the Agency.

The security forces are now poised to enter the remaining two strongholds, Sararogha and Makeen. Surrounded from all sides and with the army having secured the nearby ridges and hilltops, the towns are likely to fall anytime this week. Over two hundred militants have reportedly been killed and a good number arrested in the fighting so far.

Keeping in view the fact that the TTP was supposed to command 10,000 fighters including 1,500 Uzbeks, practically the entire militant force is still intact and available for action.

Kunigram was supposed to be the headquarters of the fierce and battle hardened Uzbeks and the nearby Karama, was described by the ISPR as "a stronghold and training centre of Uzbek militants", it was expected that with no place to go after having been evicted by the neighbouring Wazris, the Uzbeks would defend their sanctuary to the last man. It took the army three days to clear both towns. But the total number of militants killed in and around the two towns was no more than 29.

Where have all the militants that included the Mehsuds, Punjabi Taliban, Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks gone? Have the militants in the two remaining towns also disappeared, leaving only a small body of fighters to put up a symbolic fight to provide the main force sufficient time to relocate itself to a new area? This would become clear by the end of this week.

That so many militants have escaped the dragnet is going to pose serious problems for the civilian government and the army. One had hoped that after the experience in Swat, the eventuality would have been factored into the army's operational plan. The statement by the ISPR spokesman, on October 17 when the operation was launched, strengthened the perception that this had been done. He had emphatically stated that all roads leading out of the area of combat had been sealed.

Are the 10,000-armed fighters still hiding in the area? Have they decided to resort to the guerilla hit-and-run methods, instead of wasting manpower in defending their strongholds? The guerillas are supposed to retreat when the army advances, and when it camps, the guerillas harass.

In case they decide to fight the war of the flea, they, the army, will be in South Waziristan for a long haul. Or have the militants spread to other agencies? In case they succeed in establishing a new launching pad in new safe havens, the army will be left with no option but to pursue them, hopping from one agency to the other.

One wonders if the recent resurgence of militant activity in Chiba Agency has anything to do with the South Waziristan operation. Within four days seven soldiers have been killed in mine attacks, two schools and a clinic destroyed and the house of a pro-government Councillor subjected to mortar attack.

Or have some of them been dispatched to the adjoining settled districts of the NWFP and even farther? The spurt of terrorist attacks during the last few days raises concerns. There were two deadly attacks in Peshawar and Rawalpindi that killed over sixty people and a suicide bomber made an abortive attempt to enter Lahore, blasting himself and injuring about forty.

What the TTP has succeeded in is securing its most vital asset, comprising the leadership that plans and the trained fighters who execute the plans. The top leaders who have succeeded in dodging the army include the new TTP supremo Hakeemullah, the Mehsud area chief Wali-ur-Rehman, Qari Hussain, TTP spokesman Azam Tariq, organisers of a major militant training centre Mufti Nur Wali and Mufti Noor Saeed, and commanders of various strongholds occupied by the army. Will it be long before they set up another center? They might have already planned one.

The leadership which escaped is going to become a rallying point for the Taliban who seem to have withdrawn according to a plan, with minimum losses in manpower. Despite the fall of the TTP strongholds, the idea that its leaders are both alive and free would continue to inspire hope among their followers. The TTP has weaknesses. It has lost a secure haven, used by militants from all over Pakistan and abroad.

It is a vast area where scores of dangerous terrorists like Aqeel alias Dr Usman got their initial training before being launched and where Qari Hussain brainwashed young boys gathered in large groups and imparted them the necessary know-how. The TTP has also lost the headquarters where its leadership made plans in perfect freedom and security. They have also left behind heavy weapons, it will take sometime before they are able to set up a control and command system.

Unlike Afghanistan where the Taliban enjoy mass support, for they are seen to be fighting a foreign army, the TTP does not command similar public esteem. No guerilla war can be won without the enthusiastic backing of the people. The TTP did not control the Mehsud areas with the people's consent, but through the use of brute force.

In fact it acted as an anti- people force as it attacked amenities such as schools, dispensaries, and infrastructure. It is a retrogressive force trying to push back the advancing wheels of history. It can, however, inflict heavy damage and create doubts about the ability of the government agencies to provide security of life and property. What is worrisome is that nobody seems to have a clue about the militants' future plans.
 

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70 cross-border predator strikes by American drones-death of 687 Pakistani civilians

Two people have been killed as a result of a US drone missile attack in the tribal region of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed that there were casualties in early Thursday's strike that targeted a house in a village near the town of Miranshah.

The news comes as the United Nations warns Washington about indiscriminate use of drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying that it may be breaking humanitarian law.

On October 27, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston had said that the US had done nothing to demonstrate that it was not randomly killing civilians in violation of international law by the use of drones.

According to independent reports, since August 2008 alone, around 70 cross-border predator strikes carried out by American drones have resulted in the death of 687 Pakistani civilians.

Two Pakistanis killed in US drone attack
 

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Taliban battles kill 10 Pakistan troops: officials

(AFP) – 1 hour ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 10 Pakistani soldiers were killed Thursday when troops encountered the stiffest resistance yet during a four-week offensive against the Taliban, military and security officials said.

The violence erupted as troops trying to clear rebel fighters from the rugged South Waziristan region advanced on areas adjoining the Taliban stronghold of Kanigurram, the military said in a statement.

The military said five soldiers and 22 militants were killed, but army and security officials in the area said 10 to 15 troops died in what would be the deadliest single incident for troops in South Waziristan since October 17.
"At least 10 soldiers were killed in the clashes, which included some face-to-face fighting," one army officer said.

Another official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that the toll could be 15.
"It is the first time we have seen such stiff resistance," he said, describing it the most single deadly incident since nearly 30,000 troops mounted the three-pronged offensive in mid-October.

"At the moment, we have squeezed them (militants) between Makin and Ladha," he said, referring to two notorious Taliban strongholds in the district.
Security officials speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity have frequently released information from the South Waziristan battle field that was later corroborated by head office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan launched a punishing air and ground offensive against an estimated 10,000 Tehreek-e-Taliban footsoldiers, vowing to crush their strongholds and blaming the faction for some of the deadliest suicide attacks in the country.
"Security forces advanced further to secure the area of Langar Khel. Intense engagement took place," the military press release said.

"During clashes 14 terrorists were killed while five soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and seven were injured," it added.

Another eight militants died in other clashes, the military said.
The army provides the only regular information coming from the frontlines. None of the details can be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area.

The tribal belt, which has become a cauldron of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, has been dubbed by Washington the most dangerous place in the world.
The army claims to have overrun a number of key Taliban strongholds including Sararogha, Makin and Kanigurram. They say 524 militants and 53 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began.

The South Waziristan offensive has displaced more than 250,000 people, according to the army, and the United Nations has urged Pakistan to ensure safety and security of civilians during the operation.
 

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Taliban attacks kill 10 Pakistani soldiers, 10 more missing - Summary

Islamabad - At least 10 soldiers were killed and 10 more went missing in two separate attacks by Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive tribal region, officials said on Wednesday. A spokesman for the country's paramilitary Frontier Corps, Fazal-ur-Rehman, said a security vehicle hit a landmine in Mohmand Agency, a tribal district that borders Afghanistan.
Taliban attacks kill 10 Pakistani soldiers, 10 more missing - Summary : Asia World
 

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^^^UPDATE

Taliban battles kill 17 Pakistan troops: officials

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Stiff Taliban resistance killed at least 17 Pakistani soldiers Thursday in the military's deadliest day since launching a major offensive in South Waziristan, security officials said.

Pakistan has pressed around 30,000 forces, backed by war planes and attack helicopters, into battle in a US-endorsed mission to wipe out the chief strongholds of Tehreek-e-Taliban in the tribal district of South Waziristan.
Taliban battles kill 17 Pakistan troops: officials - Yahoo! News
 

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Six terrorists killed, 12 soldiers martyred in SWA

Updated at: 1700 PST, Friday, November 13, 2009

RAWALPINDI: Six terrorists have been killed while 12 soldiers embraced shahadat and 2 soldiers injured during the ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan.

According to ISPR, security forces successfully secured important feature point 5376, 3 kms north of Ahmed Wam on Jandola – Sararogha Axis.

Exchange of fire took place between security forces and terrorists at Ahmed Wam, resultantly 2 soldiers embraced Shahadat and 2 were injured, while 6 terrorists were killed.

Clearance operation at Khawasai is underway.

Security forces conducted search operation in area around Torwam on Shakai – Kaniguram Axis, cleared compounds, and recovered cache of arms and ammunition.

10 wounded soldiers due to engagement with terrorists of Langar Khel yesterday succumbed to injuries and embraced shahadat. Total casualties are 15 soldiers shaheed.

Security forces have fully secured the area from Makeen to Marobi Raghzai and road block has been established at Shah Wali Algad on Razmak- Makeen Axis.

Security forces cleared built up area of Rogha and Mir Khoni.

Terrorists fired rockets at Razmak Camp and Laghr Manza, which was effectively responded by security forces.

Security forces apprehended wanted terrorist Qamar Ali at Shangla during operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat – Malakand.

Security forces conducted search operation at Shalpin, Amankot, Ghalagai and apprehended 3 terrorists.
 

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Fourteen militants killed in South Waziristan

Saturday, 21 Nov, 2009


On the Razmak-Makeen Axis, security forces secured Lakki Ghundi after an
intense battle. — File photo


ISLAMABAD: At least 14 suspected militants were killed in South Waziristan in the past 24 hours, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Saturday. Six soldiers, including an officer, were also killed, while four others were injured.

Security forces cleared the Gandil Wala area on the Jandola-Sararogha Axis, the ISPR said. Forces also carried out search operation at Sarwekai.

Meanwhile, on the Razmak-Makeen Axis, security forces secured Lakki Ghundi after an intense battle. During the operation 14 terrorists were killed while six soldiers, including an officer, also died. Four others were injured.

Meanwhile, on the Shakai-Kaniguram axis, security forces conducted search operations in Paya (near Tiarza) and Yargha Khel. A 70 feet long tunnel was discovered and destroyed near Kaniguram. — DawnNews


DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Fourteen militants killed in South Waziristan

x-x-x-x


Ghost towns left by assault on South Waziristan

Thursday, 19 Nov, 2009




LADHA: Donkeys nibbling on the roadside are the only creatures living in the ruins of war in the hamlet of Ladha, the scenic valley emptied of inhabitants due to fighting between army and Taliban, AFP reports.

For five weeks, 30,000 troops backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships have waged battle in South Waziristan, bombing, shelling and fighting in streets against homegrown Taliban militants the military has vowed to crush.

Once notorious as a bastion of Tehreek-e-Taliban and Uzbek fighters, the small village of Ladha is now reduced to a shell of damaged buildings, piles of rubble and a ruined paramilitary fort. There was not a civilian in sight.

Commanders say resistance was stiff, that fighting in the streets and along slippery mountain ridges killed 250 militants — just under half the number the army says have been killed overall since October 17 in Waziristan.

The military this week ferried journalists for a guided tour of Ladha and Sararogha, for a first look at the legacy of the operation and the commanders' perspective of the gains they say they are making.

The United Nations says 268,000 people have been displaced. That number is more than half the estimated population of South Waziristan with extensive battle damage raising questions about how they will rebuild their lives.

‘We shot terrorists even at point blank range,’ Brigadier Farrukh Jamal told reporters at a hill-top bunker, where the green and white Pakistani flag snapped in the wind, denying there was any ‘collateral damage’.

‘When we reached here we made announcements that all civilians should gather at one place. Some 200 people came and we transported them to safer areas.’

‘We recovered a huge number of arms, ammunition, explosives and militant literature. Most of the usable weapons are being now used against the militants,’ Jamal said.

But the army took no chances with security. Two helicopters carrying the journalists were escorted by four helicopter gunships. The aircraft dropped the reporters at Sararogha and Ladha, but quickly took off to park elsewhere.

‘This is for the security of the helicopters. Militants can attack them,’ one military official at Sararogha told AFP.

‘Do not leave the track and walk in other areas, there might be some IED's buried there. We have cleared most of the area of mines and booby traps, but still there are chances,’ the official said.

In the town of Sararogha, ruined streets and shops are testament to the pitched battles between troops and battled-hardened Taliban militants and their Al-Qaeda cohorts.

In the main market, mangled shutters lie in rubble scattered everywhere as if a typhoon had ripped through the dusty valley ringed by mountains.

‘It was the place where forces faced very stiff resistance in a week-long battle from November 2-7,’ said Sararogha commander Brigadier Shafeeq Ahmed standing on the roof of a mosque amid a ruined paramilitary fort.

‘Sararogha was the icon of South Waziristan, it was their headquarters,’ he said pointing out a patch of land where a peace deal was signed in 2004.

Previous offensives in the region have ended with peace deals, which critics argued allowed militants to re-arm, and analysts warn that Pakistan should bankroll a major reconstruction effort to hold onto bomb-damaged war zones.

‘It was the place where militants used to hold their meetings and issue orders,’ said Ahmed, pointing towards the local government high school building which also carries the scars of battles today and in the past.

In January 2008, Taliban militants joined by battle-hardened Uzbeks and Arabs attacked the Sararogha paramilitary fort.

Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said security forces today control the roads, towns and their strategic ridges in South Waziristan.

‘First you have to consolidate gains. Once the gains have been consolidated, the next phase of going into countryside would begin,’ he said.

The military says 70 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, but none of the losses can be confirmed independently. Some security officials warn that many fighters have escaped into North Waziristan and Orakzai.

Abbas said that once the ‘writ of the state’ established in the area through the return of paramilitary force and civil administration then the process of repatriation and reconstruction could start.


DAWN.COM | Provinces | Ghost towns left by assault on South Waziristan

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Taliban declare guerrilla war in South Waziristan

Thursday, 19 Nov, 2009


Azam Tariq, (C) spokesman for the TTP, is flanked by
his guards a during meeting with local journalists at an
undisclosed location in South Waziristan.—AFP


MIRAMSHAH: The Taliban hit back Wednesday at claims that towns in their mountain bastion have fallen to Pakistan army control, vowing their guerrilla war would defeat troops waging a major assault.

‘We have not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan army in the area,’ Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told journalists taken blindfold to a mountain top.

Pakistan's main umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) arranged a news conference for journalists from the tribal belt a day after the military flew correspondents into South Waziristan to visit the battlefield.

An AFP reporter, who was among those taken to the mountain top, said the bearded Tariq sat on the open ground, without a rug or chairs.

Tariq, who is spokesman for TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud, was flanked by two armed bodyguards. This was his first direct interaction with journalists since the military mounted the Waziristan offensive.

Journalists from North Waziristan were driven to the border with South Waziristan in broad daylight where they were blindfolded and transferred into waiting vehicles, said the AFP reporter.

They were then taken several kilometres into the rugged terrain where troops backed by fighter aircraft and attack helicopters were engaged in their heaviest to date anti-Taliban offensive.

Gunfire could be heard from the mountains while one military helicopter was also seen flying in the area.

‘Look —the firing is in Nawazkot of Makin town. But this is a futile exercise, the army will never succeed in seizing control of the area,’ Tariq said pointing to the helicopter.

‘The army claims they have captured most of the towns. This is wrong, in fact we have vacated old forts which we captured from them in previous clashes. The troops are trapped there and we will retake the area,’ he added.

The Taliban spokesman on Wednesday denied reports from tribesmen that the fighters had lost the sympathies of the local Mehsud tribe and spurned army claims of heavy Taliban casualties.

‘The Pakistan government was doing this only to appease the Americans,’ he added. But he vowed the Taliban will continue their jihad in Afghanistan until the withdrawal of US forces.


DAWN.COM | Provinces | Taliban declare guerrilla war in South Waziristan
 

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