Pakistani Army: Unwilling or Unable? - ABC News
Armed Pakistani militants loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Mullah Fazlullah have seized control of much of Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley and are now battling security forces for the rest. (STR/ AFP/ Getty Images)
For the second day in a row, Pakistani troops abandoned an army base in South Waziristan, a region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that is a stronghold for militants. And this time, the militants didn't even attack.
One hundred frontier troops in the Chagmalai Fort received threats from militants and apparently decided it was a better idea to flee than to stay and defend themselves, an intelligence source and local residents told ABC News. The fort was filled with heavy weaponry, including artillery guns and rocket propelled grenades.
Paki Army just announced they were in control of Swat yesterday after a 3 mo. operation.
``Troops have pushed out the miscreants from the Swat Valley to an adjoining isolated area'' in the mountains, Major General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director-general of military operations, said at a briefing yesterday, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.
Thirty-six soldiers and nine civilians were killed during the offensives, the general said, without saying how many militants died. More than 615 people were arrested, 100 of whom are still being detained, he added.
( Guess he shouldn't have let the 515 people go. Most disappointing. )
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The extremists have selected the police and the army, two important pillars of the Pakistani state, as particular targets. (When does the Army target them? g )
Last week, rockets were fired at an army barracks in Warsak on the city's perimeter, a warning of the power of the militants to strike from Mohmand, a district in the tribal areas adjacent to Peshawar, an area that a few months ago was considered free of the Taliban.
The army headquarters in the center of the city were struck last month by a bomber who was hiding explosives under her burqa that were set off by remote control. The assassination a year ago of the police chief, Mr. Saad, who was killed while on duty trying to control a religious procession in one of the bazaars, shook the city.
"It's asymmetrical warfare against an established state," said Muhammad Sulaman Khan, chief of operations for the Peshawar police and a close friend of Mr. Saad. "The terrorists only don't have to lose it, we need to win it."
Frontier Insurgency Spills Into a Pakistani City, Peshawar.
UPDATE: 05.31.09
We may have to take this back, Paki Military seems to be making some
inroads into Taliban areas, we continue to follow them in detail.
Paki Army seems unable or unwilling to kill/capture Taliban
leaders???? So far.
G
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Labels: Ahmed, army, lacks, paki, Pasha, Shuja, the, will
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