The Pakistani military and the Taliban continue to battle throughout the Northwest Frontier Province as the Army continues its slow advance in South Waziristan. Clashes have been reported in Arakzai and Khyber, where the military suffered the loss of seven troops in an IED attack.
South Waziristan
The military said 21 Taliban fighters and two soldiers have been killed during fighting in South Waziristan. The military claimed its forces are just two miles outside the town of Sararogha, where South Waziristan Taliban chieftain Waliur Rehman Mehsud is said to be directing operations. Pakistani troops are advancing on Sararogha from Jandola in the southeast.
Pakistani troops are also close to taking the South Waziristan town of Kanigoram, a large town between Shakai and the Taliban stronghold of Ladha. Two days ago, the military said troops had surrounded the town from three directions, but reports from the region have dried up. Uzbek fighters from the Islamic Jihad Union and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are known to be based in Kanigoram. The military is advancing on Kanigoram and Ladha from the southwest.
In the North, the military appears to have made little progress in its advance on Makeen. The military is pushing toward Makeen from Ramzak, which is just six miles away. But the Army must pass through difficult mountainous terrain to reach Makeen.
The military has claimed that more than 300 Taliban fighters and just 34 soldiers have been killed in the battle to eject the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan from South Waziristan. The Taliban have denied taking such high casualties, and claimed to have killed 45 Pakistani soldiers in a single engagement during the battle at Kotkai, a Taliban stronghold that switched sides twice before the Army took control last weekend.
Arakzai and Kurram
The military launched a series of air and artillery strikes in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of Arakzai. Pakistani Army artillery and Air Force jets pounded “13 hideouts and training camps” and a sharia court in Mamozai in Arakzai, killing 12 Taliban fighters, Dawn reported.
In Kurram, the military launched air and artillery strikes after detecting a Taliban force moving “towards the mountains of Tora Bora.” No casualties were mentioned, but reports indicate that 11 Taliban camps and safe houses were destroyed.
Khyber
In Khyber, seven Frontier Corps troops were killed and 10 more were wounded after the Taliban detonated an IED on a military convoy in the Bara region. The attack took place just nine miles from Peshawar, Dawn reported.
Last summer, the military launched an operation against the Lashkar-i-Islam in Khyber and claimed to have killed more than 200 of the pro-Taliban extremists. The Lashkar-i-Islam and the Taliban have been attacking NATO’s supply columns that pass through Peshawar and Khyber on the way to Kabul, Afghanistan. Since security was stepped up in the region, attacks on the convoys have abated. But the Taliban continues to launch massive suicide attacks and small-scale paramilitary operations in the city of Peshawar, the provincial capital.
13 Comments
Bill: Seems like a very low number of “Taliban” killed, when there is talk about over 10,000 are in the area, ready to fight. I think that more citizens of Pakistan have died than the number of “Taliban”.
By attacking Swat Valley and South Waziristan, the Pak Government has turned OPENLY into a tool of the U.S. Government. Pres. Zardari’s poll numbers are very low. India is winning this “war”. The destruction of Swat Valley, the infrastructure damage, the crops, the livestock missing, what to return to? How about some video of Swat Valley by an independent film maker, not the Pak Gov. Press Room. The same is going on in South Waziristan. The citizens, the villagers, are the ones suffering. For what?
John B,
The Swat offensive began after the public lashing of a 19 year old by Taliban. Because of that incident there was high public support(through out Pak) for the Swat offensive. So the people can not now say they did not back the operation.
Whether the people support(ed) the current operation may be questionable. The problem is with the army/ISI. COIN operations usually take decades. When they try to finish them in weeks/months this is what happens.
The state needs to enter its phoenix mode and die so that it can be reborn. This wretched half life it is currently living does nothing for its people or the region.
Jinnah’s dream died a long time ago. They need a new dream.
‘India is winning this “war”. ‘
India is not a participant in Pakistan’s civil war.
“The citizens, the villagers, are the ones suffering. For what?”
They are suffering because of a state policy that supported extremists for 30 years in order to gain ‘strategic depth’ against India and eventually to establish an Islamic Caliphate with Pakistan as a center. The extremists are Pakistan’s Frankenstein and they are challenging state’s writ. I know it is easier for Pakistanis to blame a foreign hand for ‘Muslim on Muslim’ violence. But they should blame themselves and their policies for what is obviously a civil war.
John B
“By attacking Swat Valley and South Waziristan, the Pak Government has turned OPENLY into a tool of the U.S. Government.”
John B, the minute you drag India into this, you show your hand and the limitations of your credibility.
Time to change your brainwash!
John B,
Let me answer your “for what” question. 8 years ago some thugs attacked us causing 3000 innocent deaths and billions of dollars in damages.
The thugs who planned are finding safe haven in the region currently in question. We need to hunt these thugs to extinction for our safety.
You harbor criminals and that’s what you get. Once Pak govt gives us OBL and his buddies, we will be out of this uncivilized region.
I seriously doubt whether “John B” is your real name
Xavier,
when 9/11 happened pakistan had only $400 million in its FEX reserves and americans wanted blood so pakistan said;fine come to afghanistan,give us some money and toys and we will decide when u will get out of afghanistan. OBL is in pakistan go and get him if u can.
If Pakistan was a tool of the United States, they would have gone after the Taliban and Al Queda long ago. Instead, they did not go after them when the Taliban only acted from Pakistani soil against foreign entities. They acted when the Taliban also attacked Pakistanis and attempted to take over large parts of the country.
In truth, they went after them when the Pakistani people wanted them to, not when the American people wanted them to. This is characteristic of democracies not tools.
Whether the John B’s of this world want to admit it or not, India is not Pakistan’s biggest problem and they can make India much less of a problem and more of an asset if they control the elements fomenting conflict between the two countries which should by all rights be exchanging trade rather than terror.
Innocent Pakistani citizens?
Dear Neo, tsk tsk, do not the majority of their citizens support djihad in Kashmir, India and internationally (as they consider India Pakistani)?
It’s true though, that some Pakistanis don’t support terrorism.
And that they’re innocent directly as they’re victims of fundamentalist expansion, but indirectly mosto f them are guilty of supporting it.
You REAP what you SOW. You LEARN from CONSEQUENCES.
This is the reason the East and West are great and Islam and the South are the other way.
KW64?
I seriously doubt a nation founded on the purpose of the destruction of India is naturally inclined towards exchanging trade with it.
On the surface Pstan was established as a haven for muslim Indians, but if you dig into official announcements you’ll find documents that state indirectly their desire for the unity of Greater India under Islam.
This is a process that has been going on for over a 1000 years. The reason there is a civil war is, besides the secondary tribal insurrections, that the militants favor a more aggressive strategy against India than the state does.