Sep 03 2008
Major Developments In Pakistan Tribal Area
I have been of the opinion that the US allowed Pakistan President and US ally Musharraf to step down only after Pakistan agreed to some new conditions in the war on terror and the fact al-Qaeda was regrouping in their last large sanctuary on Earth. That sanctuary exists primarily in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) the run along the Afghan border and are the home of al-Qaeda and the Taliban remnants from Afghanistan.
As they have been chased from Afghanistan and Iraq over the past years since 9-11, al-Qaeda and the Taliban were gathering their forces in this area and attempting a come back by destabilizing both democracies in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since Musharraf has stepped down missile attacks from US/NATO forces in the region on targets on FATA have increased (see here for the latest), and the Pakistan Army has been moving in and cleansing the Islamo Fascist cancer from FATA and the Swat Valley region of the North West Frontier Province, also a hot bed of Islamic extremism.
Today we get news that US forces may be doing more than just sending missile strikes against targets in Pakistan:
The US military was accused today of having sent a force of commandos across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on a raid in which 20 people were reportedly killed, including women and children.
Both Nato and the separate US-led coalition in Afghanistan denied any knowledge of the pre-dawn attack, which local residents said involved both American and Afghan troops backed by helicopter gunships.
But it was immediately seen as both undermining sovereignty and presenting a challenge to the coalition govermnet led by Yousuf Raza Gillani, the object of an unsuccessful assassination in Rawalpindi this morning.
The attack occurred before dawn, when three or four helicopters of the NATO forces landed in Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan Agency. US and Afghan troops emerged from the helicopters, searched several houses and shot dead at least 15 people, witnesses said.
The only reason we would send in troops is to apprehend someone – and I hope we got them. And women and children die when terrorists use them as human shields (which has been reported out of Pakistan). Maybe there will be some interesting news in the war on terror this month!
In other great news on the war front, one of our readers (CJ_thespook) mentioned the US had a huge success recently in Afghanistan decimating the Taliban. Seems it was quite a drubbing:
US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed more than 220 suspected Taliban militants in an operation in southern Afghanistan last week, the US military said Monday, the biggest recent toll of insurgent deaths.
Several residents said more than 70 civilians were killed in air strikes by foreign forces in the Sangin district of Helmand province.
“The operation is mostly wrapped up. The troops killed more than 220 militants,” US military spokesman Nathan Perry said.
Yep, there is the obligatory mention of civilians, which the Taliban like to call themselves when talking to reporters.Â
There are more reports of local Pakistan tribes in FATA standing up against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, weall  hope to see a Pakistan Awakening spring out of the cesspool of Islamo Fascist hate.
Some other interesting tidbits I have not had time to post on, so will dump them here for people to peruse. Some are noting how al-Qaeda has become the enemy of Islam since George W Bush took the war to them in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that is change I can believe in, changing al-Qaeda from Islam’s future to its enemy today.
Is it that much of a surprise when the pro al-Qaeda forces slaughter entire Muslims families fighting for freedom and security? I guess this would be news if the US Marines did the killing, but not if it was done by our enemies.
It is so bad for al-Qaeda and their ilk even their suicide bombers are surrendering after being forced to die for someone else’s martyrdom. Forcing other Muslim’s children to die for al-Qaeda’s cause is not going to win these animals support.
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Unfortunately, Pakistan’s new government has apparently called off it’s offensive against the Taliban.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/story/667142.html
”The militant network was in danger but this [cease-fire] will give them time to regroup,” said Khadim Hussain, coordinator of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy, an independent think tank based in Peshawar. “I think this has got to do with the presidential election and getting support for [Asif] Zardari.”
“Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied reports that the military was caught by surprise by the cease-fire announcement, though he made clear that it was not their decision.”
WWS,
The only suspension I saw was for Ramadan, which the militants will not honor. Good PR move by the Pak Government to keep the masses on their side.
I hope your assesment is correct. We won’t know til Ramadan ends; will the offensive start up again or will the cease-fire become a permanent pullback? At this point the Taliban will be happy to simply hang on and consolidate, and so when the military pulls back there will be no reason for the militants to break the ceasefire in a major way. (meaning in a way that the Paki government won’t be able to ignore) What the Taliban needs more than anything right now is time to lick their wounds and re-arm.
Recall that Ramadan lasts an entire month, and winter in the mountains of the northern tribal areas makes sustained military operations in the area impossible. If Pakistan doesn’t start up the military offensive again in October, this may mean that they have dropped out of this fight for at least the next 6 – 8 months. Which would mean that having been pushed to the brink of extinction, the Pakistani goverment may have just given the Taliban and Al-Qaeda a new lease on life.
It is so very hard to assess what is going on in Pakistan from various news reports. You have to understand that, like here, various news outlets are propaganda machines for groups with varying agendas. It could be that they want to make it appear that more is being done while the reality is that they are simply carrying on with business as usual, hard to tell.
One thing is certain, though, and that is that the militant factions lost a huge portion of their seats in the assembly in the last round of elections. This would mean that there is much less resistance in the government to go after them as it is obvious their popularity has waned. If the people vote them out of office and they continue to cause problems, the government can then say that they are acting according to the will of the people in confronting them. That was hard to do when they had a large number of assembly seats from those areas.
Winter will be setting in over the next few weeks, too, and that will make operations more difficult in that region. But in any case, I don’t believe there will be a lot of rest in Taliban land this Winter. They are going to (again) be mighty haggard by the time Spring comes around.