Forty-four Taliban fighters and 12 soldiers were killed during fighting in South Waziristan, Hangu, Abjaur, and Khyber. Security forces detained an aide to Mullah Fazlullah and 11 Taliban fighters in Swat. Border guards detained 12 Iranians, some who are thought to be Revolutionary Guards members, in Baluchistan.
Recent clashes in South Waziristan, Bajaur, and Hangu have reportedly killed 46 Taliban fighters and 12 soldiers. The Taliban are reinforcing in South Waziristan via North Waziristan despite the military’s peace agreement with Hafiz Gul Bahadar.
Iran: Foreign agents behind Iraq, Pakistan, Iran attacks
Pakistan arrests Iranian guards
Kashmiri terrorists in training. Image from Der Speigel. Ten years ago, Muhammad Amir Khakwani Zangar, a journalist for the Urdu-language Daily Express, made the trek to a jihadi camp to talk to Ilyas Kashmiri, the dangerous al Qaeda commander operating from North Waziristan. Even back then, Kashmiri, who narrowly missed being killed in a US […]
Pakistan attack kills four troops
Pakistani Taliban’s chief warns of more attacks unless military stops assaults
A Pakistani general exchanges a Koran with a tribal leader during a prior peace deal in Waziristan. Photo from The Associated Press. It has been known for some time that the government brokered an agreement with North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar just prior to the operation that was launched against the Mehsud branch […]
Security forces killed 15 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan and eight in Bajaur and Khyber, and detained 11 in Swat. Gunmen killed the education minister for Baluchistan province in Quetta and a police inspector in Khuzdar.
Jihad™s dirt-track
Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Knowing your enemy
Bajaur Taliban leader Faqir Mohammed. Some interesting news has emerged from Bajaur, where unmanned US aircraft pounded a Taliban and al Qaeda planning session, killing 27 Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Eleven “foreigners” were reported killed. Some of developments from the Bajaur strike from The News: 1) One of Faqir Mohammed’s nephews (Zahid) and a […]
A US airstrike in Bajaur killed 17 Taliban and 11 foreign fighters. The Army retook the town of Kotkai in South Waziristan; 21 Taliban fighters and three soldiers were killed. Taliban suicide bombers killed a police chief on a highway. Three Frontier Corps troops were killed in a helicopter crash in Bajaur. Security forces detained […]
Pakistan: The new face of Talibanisation
Taliban bans non-local reporters’ entry into Waziristan
On Oct. 22, As Sahab, al Qaeda’s media production company, released a videotape of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud and South Waziristan commander Waliur Rehman Mehsud to Al Fajr Media Center, al Qaeda’s distribution network. The video was published on the Islamic Al Fallujah Forums and then distributed to the network of other jihadi web […]
Caught in the crossfire of war against the Taliban
Pakistan troops retake Taliban stronghold in Waziristan
The airstrike targeted a meeting of the Bajaur Taliban shura. Faqir Mohammed narrowly survived the attack. The attack is the first outside Waziristan since April.
The Taliban killed seven Pakistanis in a suicide attack near a nuclear facility in Kamra and 15 more in a landmine attack on a bus in Mohmand; 15 civilians were wounded in a carbombing in Peshawar. Security forces killed six Uzbeks and seven Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, and 19 Taliban fighters in Khyber, Mohmand, […]
Andrew Exum linked to my recent Threat Matrix post in his own post about drone strikes — as an example of how “careless readers of [Exum and Kilcullen’s] argument mistakenly assume we agree with open-source reporting out of Pakistan.” A few points in response. First of all, I have a lot of respect for Andrew […]
Fifteen Pakistanis were killed and 19 more were wounded, nine critically, in the latest strikes inside Pakistan.
US tells Pak not to use aid for confrontation against India
Nek Mohammed, the former leader of the Taliban in South Waziristan, speaks to his followers after being showered with gifts by the Pakistani Army after a peace agreement on April 24, 2004. Nek was later killed in a US Predator strike, and was replaced by Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in another Predator strike on […]
Seven people were reported killed and 12 more were wounded after a bomber detonated at a security checkpoint near the Kamra Air Weapon Complex in Attock.
Held by the Taliban: Epilogue
Held by the Taliban, part 5: A rope and a prayer
Held by the Taliban, part 4: A drone strike and dwindling hope
China becomes a player in Afghanistan’s future
The military said 25 Taliban fighters were killed in South Waziristan and 15 more were killed in Mohmand. Police detained 152 suspects in Rawalpindi. The government suspended Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed’s case for another month and extended the detention of Sufi Mohammed.