Pakistani Military Strategy Revealed As Artillery Pounds Taliban In South Waziristan

Okay, this article from Dawn includes a lot of details that I reported yesterday but there is new information of what is going on today, Monday, in the South Waziristan operation by the Pakistani military. The great news is that the Pakistanis are not holding back on shelling and they continue to pound Taliban strongholds. And now, we see a bit of the strategy from the article:

‘There has been artillery fire throughout the night. It was very heavy firing,’ Noor Wali, a resident of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan region, said by telephone.

The army says it has surrounded the militants in their main zone, a wedge of territory in the north of South Waziristan, and soldiers backed by aircraft and artillery are attacking from the north, southwest and southeast.

There are indications that part of the Pakistani military's objective in the South Waziristan operation is not to allow the Taliban to escape and that is what we are seeing with this surrounding maneuver of coming at them from different directions. We also have to realize that the Taliban feel like they own South Waziristan and they feel fortified there - thus, we haven't seen them leave the area ahead of this offensive. Don't forget, the Pakistani government has caved several times in the past in this kind of offensive - once the battle got too pitched or some Pakistani troops were captured, the government called a truce...well, it doesn't appear that this is going to happen this time. While the troop counts of Pakistani army to Taliban is only about 3 to 1, the key to this offensive is how long the Pakistanis will continue with artillery and airstrikes ...if they keep those up, we could literally see the Taliban forces wiped out. But, at some point in time, if it looks like the army is closing the loop on the Taliban, we will see an attempted exodus of them from South Waziristan.

Troops pound militant positions in South Waziristan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Security forces backed by heavy artillery attacked Taliban on Monday as the army moved to wrest control of militant strongholds in South Waziristan.
The offensive follows a string of brazen militant attacks in different parts of the country, including an assault on army headquarters, in which more than 150 people were killed.
‘There has been artillery fire throughout the night. It was very heavy firing,’ Noor Wali, a resident of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan region, said by telephone.
The army said on Sunday that 60 militants and five soldiers had been killed in the first 24 hours of the long-awaited offensive launched on the militants in their South Waziristan bastion.
There was no independent verification of the casualty toll.
About 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taliban, including about 1,000 tough Uzbek fighters and some Arab al-Qaeda members.
The militants have had years to prepare their bunkers in the land of arid mountains and sparse forests cut through by dried-up creeks and ravines.
The army says it has surrounded the militants in their main zone, a wedge of territory in the north of South Waziristan, and soldiers backed by aircraft and artillery are attacking from the north, southwest and southeast.
Foreign reporters are not allowed in to the area, and it is dangerous for Pakistani reporters to visit. Many of the Pakistani reporters based in South Waziristan have left.
The army has launched brief offensives in South Waziristan before, the first in 2004 when it suffered heavy casualties before striking a peace pact.
But this time analysts say the army, the government and the general public all agree the time has come to deal with the Pakistani Taliban.
Though the army is determined, the offensive could be its toughest test since the militants turned on the state, and the army will be hoping Afghan Taliban factions elsewhere in South Waziristan and in North Waziristan stay out of the fight.
Civilians flee
About 100,000 civilians have fled from South Waziristan in anticipation of the offensive, with about 16,000 of them coming out in the last few days, the army said.
But the exodus is not expected to bring a humanitarian crisis similar to one this year when about two million people fled from an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.
South Waziristan's population is about 500,000, according to the latest figures, and many residents have houses on government-controlled lowland to the east. People traditionally head up to Waziristan in the summer with their flocks and back to the lowland in the autumn.
Most of the displaced who do not have houses on the lowland are staying with friends and relatives, officials said.
Intelligence officials said the fighting was concentrated around the town of Shakai, where soldiers are pushing in from the southwest.
‘The militants are putting up stiff resistance at the Shakai front,’ said an intelligence official in the region.
There was less fighting on another front in the Spinkai Raghzai area, where soldiers are moving in from the southeast, said the official, who declined to be identified.