The Pakistani military claimed 49 Taliban fighters were killed during an ongoing offensive in two of the remote tribal agencies bordering Afghanistan.
The Frontier Corps, Pakistan’s paramilitary branch that operates in the Northwest Frontier Provinces and the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies, claimed 27 Taliban fighters were killed during a ground attack supported by air and artillery strikes in the Kurram tribal agency.
The military also said it captured an additional 18 Taliban fighters in the Dogar region in central Kurram.
In the Arakzai tribal agency, the Frontier Corps claimed 22 Taliban fighters were killed in attacks by assault helicopters.
“At least 18 militants were killed when helicopters pounded Toorikhel town of Arakzai when militants were holding an important meeting,” Major Fazlur Rehman, a spokesman for the Frontier Corps, told AFP. Four additional Taliban fighters were reported killed in Sultanzai.
Arakzai and Kurram are Taliban strongholds under the command of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Hakeemullah has been waging a terror campaign against the state after the death of Baitullah Mehsud, his predecessor. Taliban suicide bombers and terror assault teams have struck in Pakistan’s major cities, and even took control for a number of hours of a building inside the Army General Headquarters in the military garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Taliban leaders and fighters have fled South Waziristan after the military launched an offensive in the Mehsud tribal areas in early October. The Taliban have taken shelter in Arakzai, Kurram, Khyber, North Waziristan, and areas in South Waziristan not affected by the operation.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani recently said the military would launch a full-scale offensive in Arakzai, but in the same breath indicated the government will seek to negotiate with the Taliban first.
The Pakistani military is balking at extending the military operation beyond the Mehsud branch of the Taliban. The military fears that moving against the Haqqani Network and other Taliban groups in North and South Waziristan will weaken the military’s strategic depth in Afghanistan and lead to an internal civil war within the Army.
