Pakistani troops and Taliban fighters have again battled in the tribal agency of South Waziristan, after the Taliban attacked security outposts in the region.
This weekend the Taliban killed six Pakistani troops who were manning outposts in the Mehsud tribal areas and wounded 35 more, in what was described as intense fighting that lasted several hours. The Pakistani military claimed to have killed 38 Taliban fighters in retaliatory air and artillery strikes throughout the region.
Until recently, the Taliban have been relatively inactive in South Waziristan since the military launched an offensive to clear them from the Mehsud tribal regions in October 2009. The military claimed to have killed more than 600 Taliban fighters during the months-long operation. The Mehsud tribe makes up the backbone of the leadership of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and prior to October 2009, the terror group was headquartered in South Waziristan.
Just over a week ago, Major General Nawaz Khan, the military’s operations chief in the region, announced that South Waziristan had been cleared and that there are no more Taliban bases in the area. The Taliban have denied they have been ejected from South Waziristan, however, and claimed they would launch a counteroffensive against the military that was to begin this spring.
That counteroffensive never materialized, but there have been strong indications that the Taliban are still present in the region. The Taliban have issued night letters in villages threatening those who support the government and the military, they intimidate and assassinate key tribal members who oppose the Taliban, and they occasionally launch attacks against the Pakistani military.
Today’s clashes took place as the military is preparing to move internal refugees from South Waziristan back into their homes. More than 300,000 members of the Mehsud tribe are said to have fled the fighting.
As part of the resettlement process of the refugees, the Pakistani government has pressured the Mehsud tribe to denounce the Taliban and promise that neither foreign fighters nor the so-called Punjabi Taliban would be based in the region. But the tribal leaders have resisted pressure to agree to the government’s terms.
The Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan were one of several major hubs for the Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda, and other Central and South Asian terror groups in Pakistan’s northwest. Foreign terror groups, including al Qaeda, are still in South Waziristan, but are based in the Wazir tribal areas under the command of Mullah Nazir, who is considered a “good Taliban” leader despite his support for al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. Nazir does not support attacks against the Pakistani state but backs terror groups that do, including the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.
Recently, the Wazir tribes refused government demands that they eject foreign terrorists from their midst. On June 29, an al Qaeda operative from Egypt known as Hawza al Jawfi, two Punjabi fighters, and five local Taliban fighters were killed in a US airstrike near Wana, an area under Nazir’s command.
Sources:
• Clashes break pause in S. Waziristan; 38 militants killed, Dawn
• South Waziristan cleared of militants, says army, Dawn
2 Comments
There is ample reason to dis the Pakis for their annoying duplicity, but we should also acknowledge when they give their sons in the fight against our mutual enemy.
Bill,
Wonder if you heard anything more on the 35 pak FC personnel that were captured about a month ago.
Your story of 6/16
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/06/taliban_kill_10_paki.php