An ambush of a Pakistani army patrol in Mohmand agency led to the death of 3 Pakistani troops but the Pakistani army went all in and in the end, after calling in air support, 54 Taliban were scattered around the area...dead as door nails.
From the report at DAWN:
Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed 54 alleged militants in a northwest tribal region near the Afghan border where the military has repeatedly tried to flush out the Taliban, a government official said Friday. Three troops also died in the clashes.
The battle in the Mohmand tribal region on Thursday underscored the difficulty Pakistan has had in keeping areas clear of militants after initial operations, an area the United States has pointed to as a weakness in its counter-insurgency efforts.
Pakistani troops were doing routine patrolling in the Paizai area of Mohmand when they came under attack, said Maqsood Hasan, a deputy administrator in the region. The troops returned fire and killed 10 insurgents, but also called for backup in the air, Hasan said.
The army sent helicopters and jets to target militant positions, killing 44 more insurgents and wounding several others, Hasan said.
Just as a reminder, Mohmand agency is right on the Afghan border and is one of the agencies and/or provinces in Pakistan that the Taliban utilize for their movement back and forth into Afghanistan. It's my feeling that this is one agency that the Pakistanis have simply refused to engage fully with an all out military operation like they have done in Swat and South Waziristan.
By the way, I want to call your attention to one line in the article:
He noted that two or three civilians died when a mortar shell hit a home in the region, but he would not speculate which side fired the shell.
See that? Now, as any sane person would understand, this is what happens in war but let's just conjecture what this article would have said if that had been a U.S. hellfire missile from a drone that killed 3 civilians. Hell, we both know that this would be a one page front page story about the horror of Americans killing poor innocent Pakistani civilians. The Prime Minister of Pakistan would be asking for an apology from America for the carnage. But, since it was, more than likely, the Pakistani military that did this...we hear crickets. The point is...in a war in Pakistan, civilian casualties are accepted as a price of battle...as long as it is Muslims being accidently killed by Muslims....but Muslims being accidentally killed by infidels is a WHOLE 'nother deal, man.
Pakistani troops kill 54 militants in Mohmand
KHAR: Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed 54 alleged militants in a northwest tribal region near the Afghan border where the military has repeatedly tried to flush out the Taliban, a government official said Friday. Three troops also died in the clashes.
The battle in the Mohmand tribal region on Thursday underscored the difficulty Pakistan has had in keeping areas clear of militants after initial operations, an area the United States has pointed to as a weakness in its counter-insurgency efforts.
Pakistani troops were doing routine patrolling in the Paizai area of Mohmand when they came under attack, said Maqsood Hasan, a deputy administrator in the region. The troops returned fire and killed 10 insurgents, but also called for backup in the air, Hasan said.
The army sent helicopters and jets to target militant positions, killing 44 more insurgents and wounding several others, Hasan said. He noted that two or three civilians died when a mortar shell hit a home in the region, but he would not speculate which side fired the shell.
It is nearly impossible to independently verify the information. Pakistan’s military rarely gives details about how it distinguishes militants from civilians, and access to the country’s tribal areas, where al Qaeda and the Taliban have long had hideouts, is severely restricted.
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