Pakistani troops have entered the last major Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan. Twenty-four Taliban fighters have been reported killed during fighting over the past 24 hours, according to the Pakistani military.
The soldiers are storming the town of Makeen, where former Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud lived. “The house of Baitullah Mehsud has been raised [sic] to ground,” according to a press release published by the Inter Service Public Relations, the Army’s public affairs office.
Twenty-one Taliban fighters are reported to have been killed during the first day of fighting in Makeen. “Terrorists are fleeing leaving behind their weapons and ammunition,” the statement read. The military also said it seized control of two important intersections.
Makeen is one of five major Taliban towns in South Waziristan. The military has already taken control of Kotkai and Kanigoram, is currently clearing Sararogha and Ladha.
The military has claimed that more than 440 Taliban fighters and only 40 soldiers have been killed since the Army launched an operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan on Oct. 17.
The military is close to completing its goal of ejecting the Taliban from the main towns and villages in South Waziristan before the winter snows set in later this month.
The Taliban have denied taking heavy casualties and claimed their forces are conducting a tactical defeat in order to lure the Army into a trap and wage an insurgency. Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud purportedly was heard on the radio imploring his followers to fight to the death if ordered.
28 Comments
I am baffled. I have read the posts to related articles questioning why the p’stan army seems to be pushing through these strongholds” with ease/minimal resistance and without having to push through the thousands of t’ban who supposedly occupy the area. Why retreat en masse after loosing only approximately 0.015 of your fighting force? Cowardice? Force over- exaggeration? “trap”? Seems like a PR disaster for the jhadies.
Cerberus:
The Taliban melted away in Afghanistan in 2001, and now they are back there with a vengeance. Time is on their side–even if the Pakistani government were serious about eliminating them (which, of course, it is not).
You fight to the death.
Me run away and hide. Dress like woman to get away.
I don’t like it either. A tactical retreat seems to be the order of the day for the Taliban. Watch for the trap or revenge of the Taliban once the Pak’s leave.
While important, this push from the Razmak to the Makeen area is a secondary front. The Shakai Valley at the west end of battle was a good staging area for a large scale infantry attack. Razmak on the north end of the battle is somewhat isolated from necessary large scale supply. The Taliban around Razmak were well dug in as well. It seems that the primary purpose of this second front was to engage and hold down the large Taliban presence in the area while the main action was going on 16 km away in the Kanigurram area.
At this point it is more important that the Pakistani army solidify their gains rather than try to link up between Makeen and Ladha. I think the only thing to be achieved by prematurely linking is for the Pakistani army to string themselves out too thinly along the main roads. They need to capitalize on their success by quickly broadening out their positions before moving too much farther.
On the other hand if the Taliban are really in disarray than a quick link between Makeen and Ladha might be low risk.
I’m a skeptic… It seems a little too easy
Neo,
Your posts are always amazingly detailed. I have to assume you are from the area, or you’re just very very well informed!
Always great posts to read, though the names of the places are lost on me.
It seems that both sides may be basing their strategy on how they believe the onset of winter will effect their opponents actions. The winner will be the one who guessed right.
Of course, they may BOTH have have guessed wrong …
Bing,
Never been to Pakistan. I’ve never been out of North America for that matter. I am fairly good with maps and tables. I dig around on the Internet until I find decent sources of information. Right now, I am using Google Earth, about four sketch maps of the area, and two (badly incomplete) tables of place names. I try to use the same place names and spellings that the Pakistani press is using. That isn’t easy since places often have alternative names and occasionally there are multiple places with the same name. I had the wrong place for Kotkai for about two days.
The early news releases were quite a jumble with information about different areas mixed all together. It appears that the Pakistani military is trying to clarify that by designating different “axis”
i cant think of any army in the history of mankind under so much of srutiny as the pakistan army,every move it makes is questioned, its motives and capabilities are questioned.
all of u folks like to be seen as masters of millitary strategy…dont you think swat operation was well planed and executed? if pak army is doing well in wazristan why are u holding that against her?
Remember pakistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. its millitary budget is $4 1/2 billion ( US has $ 600 + billion ). its not fair to judge pak army with first world standards although pak army can hold its ground against them.
Raised to the ground?
Pakistan must be more enamored with the djihadiz then I thought.
*koff*
Nobody will ever be satisfied but Swat proved that these Taliban were paper tigers and South Waziristan is just going to be a repeat of their earlier defeat.
Destroying their safe heavens and where they had their Government is being destroyed. What are they left with but dreams of having territory that are about to lose as well.
Again they will say that they were not defeated but Hakimullah is admitting that they are running away in face of sure death that is admitting defeat!!
“The house of Baitullah Mehsud has been raised to ground,”
I think you mean ‘razed’.
Max, you’ll have to take that “raised” vs “razed” issue up with the ISPR, since that is a direct quote.
I am prepared to give the Pakistan army the benefit of the doubt for the time being. They are the ones who seem to be getting results in this war. Could it be that they are fighting to win whereas we (NATO) are fighting so that we can leave Afghanistan? No one on our side seems to believe that the Taliban can be beaten.
Once the Pakistanis take control of the mostly abandoned Taliban strongholds, they’ll have to stay and conduct counter-insurgency offensives. If they declare victory and pull their forces out of Waziristan, they’ll be dooming themselves to more terror and fighting for many years. If only they would pull more troops from the Indian border they could expand operations to North Waziristan as well.
I’m not sure the Pakistani army has successfully “razed”
Once the snowfall starts, Pakistani soldiers will be easy targets for guerrilla warfare tactics of Taliban.
looks more like fade out, let the pakistan army tom tom their fabulous success, reappear back, bleed and demoralize them to hell.
Seems to me that the ultimate success taliban can have against pakistan establishment would be to create a psyche that its futile to fight back.
there have been too many surrenders and deal making already, more out of a wanting to retain the taliban as assets (of course also incompetence) against india and afganistan but when it starts happening out of a defeatist mentality, thats when it will be all over.
knowing the pakistani establishement’s ways you can see it very clearly running down that lane.
treetop posted “i cant think of any army in the history of mankind under so much of srutiny as the pakistan army,every move it makes is questioned, its motives and capabilities are questioned.”
treetop, go look at old press reports from western news organizations of any major military offensive from the last 50 years, you will see exactly the same thing. It just seems worse because Pakistan has bared the reporters from the region, leaving the press with nothing to report but each others speculations.
Max appears to be quite the grammarian/semanticist. The ISPR’s use of “raised” here is indeed a malapropism. We kneed more guys like Max on this forum to correct us all. 😉
raze |rāz|
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be razed)
completely destroy (a building, town, or other site) : villages were razed to the ground. See note at destroy .
ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense [scratch, incise] ): from Old French raser ‘shave closely,’ from Latin ras- ‘scraped,’ from the verb radere.
Bill,
Do you think that Taiban are waiting for Winter to set in ? Then they will start with their classic hit and run attacks the way they are doing with the Americans ?
Thanks,
Yash
If the Taliban are waiting for Winter, they must now be living in temporary accommodation without much in the way of food and shelter and they have left most of their arms behind as well. So they are not well set up for a Winter campaign.
No, I think it is more likely that they were simply taken by surprise. They had grown used to a sense of security in Makeen and Kotai and other places and now they are refugees. SWAT was not a trap for the Pakistan Army and neither will Waziristan be one.
Mark,
Replenishing small arms should not be an issue for Taliban in Waziristan since it shares the border with Afghanistan. Its the number of men who have escaped and the intact leadership.
For motivation they can always look at their Afghan brethren who are taking on the more professional and determined US army. Pak army was never good in handling civilian matters or infact managing them. I feel its just a matter of time Taliban re group and start the game of attrition with the Pak army.
Thanks,
Yash.
Enlighten me someone…will the harsh winters and limited mobility favor the defenders of the ousted Taliban territories, or insurgents ?
Seems air support and supply would be out for the army, but launching anything other than a nuisance raid from a winter hiding place or cave seems hard too.
TAQ cannot win a stand up fight and cannot carry out insurgency w/o protected ground. So as long as Pakistan and( not or) US maintain resolve TAQ loses. Say what you want about Pakistani military but they are getting results that cannot be duplicated by any other military organization. Let’s hope they keep it up and we amplify their recent successes by pressing TAQ from the other side of the border. Yes TAQ has many safe zones in FATA but who among us though Pakistani military would take on TAQ in SW? At the risk of being glib let’s give war a chance.
On the Razmak – Makeen Axis the Pakistani army has taken the village of Tauda China 32.65 N, 69.817 E. It is also securing the heights immediately to the east of Makeen. It appears that the army is consolidating their gains in this and other areas.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/10-Nov-2009/Seven-militants-killed-in-SWaziristan-operation
I see that the Pakistan army is now in complete control of Makeen.