The Taliban killed nine Pakistani soldiers during a ambush in a region where the military has claimed success in the recent past.
The Taliban ambushed the Pakistani military unit as it conducted a search operation in the town of Daburi, just outside the main town of Kalaya. Fighting was described as “fierce” as the two sides battled in the town.
The military claimed that 37 Taliban fighters were killed in the counterattack. Two Pakistani officers and seven soldiers were reported killed in the attack, AFP reported.
Arakzai is one of several regions where the Taliban regrouped after the military launched an offensive against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Mehsud tribal region in South Waziristan. The Taliban have also regrouped in North Waziristan, Kurram, Khyber, Mohmand, and Bannu. Hakeemullah Mehsud, the current leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, commanded Taliban forces in Arakzai before taking over the group after his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a US airstrike in South Waziristan on Aug. 5, 2009.
The Pakistani military launched an offensive in Arakzai at the end of March, and have claimed success. On April 11, the Inter-Services Public Relations directorate, the military’s public affairs division, said the Taliban were “fleeing” Arakzai.
“Due to successful operation of security forces in others agencies of FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Agences], militants had started fleeing to Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency due to its linkages with other agencies and Afghanistan,” an ISPR press release read.
The Pakistani military has claimed that more than 650 Taliban fighters have been killed in Arakzai since March 21, while only 17 soldiers, including nine today, have been killed, according to reports compiled by The Long War Journal.
A US military intelligence official contacted by The Long War Journal believes the Pakistani claims of more than 650 Taliban fighters killed are “overblown.”
“A month ago they were ‘fleeing’ Arakzai and the Taliban was defeated,” the official said. “It doesn’t add up.” The Pakistani military often uses air and artillery to root out the Taliban, and estimates the number of Taliban fighters killed. Reports on Taliban casualties are based solely on Pakistani military accounts, as reporters are barred from covering operations in the tribal agencies.
5 Comments
Pakistan Army claim to have killed 650 Taliban mainly using Fighter plans & blind artillery is overblown. Statistical Analysis by political workers & community leaders in the war zones shows that 90% of these figures are innocent women, children, elderly & others. Taliban are taking very limited casualties. This is one of the reason people of war affected areas do not believe in the Pak Army. They consider it to be Mulla-Military alliance against civilian population. With Command & Control structure intact, no mater how much Pak Army hype their figures, the world at large is not safe. The tribals are clearly impressed by the precision of drones to disable the Command & controls of militants.
While we have seen that the representations of Ministry of Interior bureaucrats and Pak military functionaries are often embellished, I find the claims of “political workers and community leaders” equally suspect. Diogenes would be engaged in a fruitless search trying to find an honest man in most of this region.
This the game of figures. They claim killing Talibans for US funding. A day will come When US will have to treat Pakistan as treating Talibans
this is good news… terrorists are killing the real terrorists AKA pak army
yash, I don’t consider the same ilk who are trying to kill ISAF soldiers across sovereign borders as heroes or their killing of Pak soldiers tasked to eliminate their murder and mayhem as “good news”. The Taliban are not the good guys in this lethal drama.
I view this outcome as a sad but necessary investment that Pakistan is making – the human blood and precious lives of their young sons – to eradicating at least some of the anti-civilization Islamist cancer in their midst.