The good news is Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik seems to have dropped the charade that newly appointed Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud is dead. The bad news is we’re going to be bombarded with more of the “Taliban is collapsing” rhetoric. From The Nation (the Pakistani newspaper):
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said Pakistan and Afghanistan can get rid of the terrorism very soon if they adopt a joint strategy, adding the recent military operation in Swat is a success and as a result the Taliban are in a disarray.
“Taliban have been disintegrated in Pakistan and the 2nd tier leadership of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are fleeing Pakistan,” he said during an interview with a British TV channel on Saturday.
Al Qaeda is leaving Pakistan and heading to Yemen and Somalia, Malik continued.
If that sounds familiar, it is because The New York Times reported something like this on June 12. But if you read the NYT report and discount the opportunist political spin from US officials, it is pretty clear that the “dozens of fighters with al Qaeda, and a small handful of the terrorist group’s leaders” are being assigned to Yemen and Somalia to help coordinate and support activities between al Qaeda Central in Pakistan with the the two regional affiliates. Al Qaeda’s assignment of personnel to Yemen and Somalia tells us far more about the deteriorating situation in those countries than it does about the situation in Pakistan.
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4 Comments
More BS from the P-stani’s. Tban/AQ are going nowhere. After all, they got it pretty good in P-stan…
On the one hand their field leadership is getting younger.
On the other hand they clearly feel they’re strong enough to send support/leadership teams out to other fronts.
This clearly does not fit with the popular MSM narrative of it being two seperate mini-wars and serves to prove that it is in fact, a single war with many fronts and theaters.
Has any of the MSM made note of the former Iraqi Republican Guard members fighting alongside of the Talib in Pakistan?
CRICKETEER,
R
Bill,
I’m curious about the answer to Render’s question to the MSM, myself. You know a lot more than the MSM on these things. Do you know of “former Iraqi Republican Guard members fighting alongside of the Talib in Pakistan?”
Scott
Scott: Not to speak for Bill but…
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/al_qaedas_paramilita.php
That’s where I got it from.
===
They were skilled tribal fighters but they were not soldiers. Somebody with military organizational skills and training taught them to be soldiers and gave them an organizational structure they’ve never shown before.
Somebody had to teach them that their enemies supply lines were running right through their own front yard.
UPGRADES,
R