Pakistani Army Engages Taliban In Huge Battle In Swat Valley, 15 Taliban Killed

The gunbattle took place near Kharkai hills, in the Lower Dir district. – Photo by AP (File)

I remember a time when the Pakistani military had pretty much driven every Taliban out of the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan...but (sigh) ...that was before the military decided to take a year off from conflict and so obviously, the Taliban are back. Today, a group of Pakistani military reached a mountain top area in order to establish an outpost and ended up engaging a throng of Taliban and when the smoke and dust and body parts had settled, 15 Taliban had been killed and one Pakistani soldier was dead.

From the report at DAWN:

At least 15 militants were killed Saturday in a gunfight with troops in a restive northwestern Pakistani district, security officials said.

The day-long gunbattle near Kharkai hills, in the Lower Dir district of the once Taliban-infested Swat Valley, started when troops were approaching a strategic peak to establish a post, a senior security official told AFP.

“More than 15 militants were killed in a clash with security forces,” the official said.

“One soldier was martyred and three others were wounded,” he said. Another security official confirmed the fighting and casualties.

Last week a suicide bomber blew himself up in the same district as mourners gathered on open ground in Jandol town attending funeral prayers.

Hopefully, what the Pakistanis are starting to learn is that the Taliban never really go away...they simply move like a bunch of nomadic assassins...if you clear them out of Swat, then they shift and move over to South Waziristan or another agency....and when you abandon the Swat area, they simply come back. Can you imagine what it is like for the locals? They deal with the iron-fisted rule of the Taliban...they're afraid to come out of their huts and one day the Taliban have cleared out and life returns to normal...and then six months later you hear some noise and here come the Taliban back into the village. Mind boggling what these people will put up with.

Clashes in Lower Dir kills 15 militants


PESHAWAR: At least 15 militants were killed Saturday in a gunfight with troops in a restive northwestern Pakistani district, security officials said.

The day-long gunbattle near Kharkai hills, in the Lower Dir district of the once Taliban-infested Swat Valley, started when troops were approaching a strategic peak to establish a post, a senior security official told AFP.

“More than 15 militants were killed in a clash with security forces,” the official said.

“One soldier was martyred and three others were wounded,” he said. Another security official confirmed the fighting and casualties.

Last week a suicide bomber blew himself up in the same district as mourners gathered on open ground in Jandol town attending funeral prayers.

More than 4,600 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on the Taliban and other extremist networks based in the tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

In 2009, 30,000 Pakistani troops went into battle against Taliban fighters who for two years had terrorised people with a campaign of beheadings, violence and attacks on girls’ schools in Swat and parts of Dir.

The army declared the region back under control in July of that year and said the rebels had all been killed, captured or had fled.

Pakistani Military Kills 11 Taliban In Swat Valley Who Had Fled Mohmand Offensive

A few days ago I had featured the fact that the Pakistani army was busy trying to gut out Mohmand agency of Taliban...well, today, the Pakistani army killed 11 of the Taliban who had fled that very same offensive in Mohmand and had entered the Swat Valley region to carry on their death and destruction.

From the article at DAWN:

Pakistan’s military said Friday it had killed 11 militants in the Swat valley, raising fears that rebels are again infiltrating the one-time tourism hub.

“Security forces foiled an attempt to disrupt peace in the Swat valley when they killed 11 terrorists overnight,” a military spokesman said.

The spokesman said the fighters had fled Mohmand, a nearby tribal district where Pakistan is waging its latest air and ground offensive against homegrown Taliban blamed for near daily bomb attacks in the northwest.

“These people fled the Mohmand operation and wanted to commit acts of terrorism in the valley,” said the spokesman.

Pakistan declared Swat under control in the summer of 2009 after a major air and ground offensive to evict militants.

For two years the Taliban paralysed much of the district by promoting a repressive brand of religious law, opposing secular girls’ education and beheading opponents, until the government ordered in thousands of troops.

This is a pretty good sign that the Pakistanis are in a position to handle the spillover of Taliban into surrounding areas while purging Mohmand of Taliban. What has been evident in all of the offensives that have been conducted by the Pakistan military over the past few years is this - the country is absolutely lousy with Taliban. I think even the Pakistanis had no idea of the numbers of Taliban that were in NW Pakistan. And I will state right now that a big part of the reason for that is the fact that U.S. and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan have made it miserable for the Taliban to stay there - in fact, one might come to the conclusion that much of the Taliban has given up in Afghanistan.

Pakistan troops kill 11 militants in Swat


PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s military said Friday it had killed 11 militants in the Swat valley, raising fears that rebels are again infiltrating the one-time tourism hub.

“Security forces foiled an attempt to disrupt peace in the Swat valley when they killed 11 terrorists overnight,” a military spokesman said.

The spokesman said the fighters had fled Mohmand, a nearby tribal district where Pakistan is waging its latest air and ground offensive against homegrown Taliban blamed for near daily bomb attacks in the northwest.

“These people fled the Mohmand operation and wanted to commit acts of terrorism in the valley,” said the spokesman.

Pakistan declared Swat under control in the summer of 2009 after a major air and ground offensive to evict militants.

For two years the Taliban paralysed much of the district by promoting a repressive brand of religious law, opposing secular girls’ education and beheading opponents, until the government ordered in thousands of troops.

Since then, sporadic attacks, shootings and militant operations have suggested lingering insecurity in a region, just 125 kilometres (80 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad.

Separately, police in the town of Mardan said they had picked up five bodies from a field one day after a teenage suicide bomber dressed in school uniform killed 31 army recruits at a parade ground outside the town.

A chit was attached to each body, listing the name and hometown of the deceased, and one scrap of paper said “long live Taliban Pakistan,” said local police officer Samad Khan.

The men came from Rawalpindi, the garrison city that is the headquarters of the Pakistan military, as well as from the towns of Charsadda and Swabi, he said.

They were aged 20 to 45 and had all been shot dead, he added.

The northwest has been a flashpoint since Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters sought refuge after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, later giving rise to a homegrown insurgency against Pakistani security forces. – AFP

Fazlullah, Head of the Swat Valley Taliban, Reported Killed Just Inside Afghanistan

Well, you know the drill ... don't take this information to the bank but let's keep our fingers crossed that Pakistani Taliban leader, Maulvi Fazlullah was killed the other day when his forces clashed with Afghan forces just inside of Afghanistan in Nuristan province.

From the report at DAWN:

A top leader of Pakistan's Taliban may have been killed in a clash with Afghan forces near the border, a senior Afghan police officer said on Thursday.

Maulvi Fazlullah, the head of a Taliban faction in the Swat Valley, was reportedly killed along with six of his comrades in the Barg Matal district of Afghanistan's Nuristan province, which lies close to the border with Pakistan, said Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, chief of the Afghan border force for the eastern region.

“Our units have reported that Fazlullah has been killed. We don't yet know if it's true or not. We're investigating this right now,” Zaman said.

The bodies were recovered by the police, he said, adding: “We're investigating to find out if Maulana's body is among those seven.”

By now, I'm not willing to make a call on the accuracy of this, especially when there aren't any U.S. or even Pakistani forces involved in the killing. But, if true, it would represent a very nice sized fish taken out of the mix in the region.

Fazlullah reportedly killed in clash: Afghan police


ASADABAD: A top leader of Pakistan's Taliban may have been killed in a clash with Afghan forces near the border, a senior Afghan police officer said on Thursday.

Maulvi Fazlullah, the head of a Taliban faction in the Swat Valley, was reportedly killed along with six of his comrades in the Barg Matal district of Afghanistan's Nuristan province, which lies close to the border with Pakistan, said Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, chief of the Afghan border force for the eastern region.

“Our units have reported that Fazlullah has been killed. We don't yet know if it's true or not. We're investigating this right now,” Zaman said.

The bodies were recovered by the police, he said, adding: “We're investigating to find out if Maulana's body is among those seven.”

Mohammad Farouq, Nuristan's deputy provincial police chief also said the Pakistani militant leader may have been killed, but had no confirmation.

“We have reports from our sources that he has been killed in Bargi Matal clashes. We are investigating,” Farouq said.

The news of Fazlullah's death comes after reports of several days of clashes between Afghan forces and militants in Barg Matal.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who heads a Pakistani Taliban faction based in the Bajuar tribal region, denied media reports that Fazlullah was leading any assault in Afghanistan.

“He could be in Nuristan because the Taliban have been moving back and fourth along the (Pakistan-Afghan) border,” he told a news agency by telephone prior to reports of Fazlullah's death.

“He may be living in Nuristan but he is not engaged in any fighting there,” he said.

In a BBC interview in November, Fazlullah said he had escaped to Afghanistan after a Pakistani military offensive against the Taliban in his Swat Valley stronghold in April last year. — Agencies

Pakistani Forces Kill Key Taliban Commander In Swat Valley Raid

It's all about tips from the people. We saw this start to really turn the tide in Al Anbar province in Iraq as the Iraqi people started telling U.S. forces and Awakening teams where the bad guys of al Qaeda were hiding, and now, a senior commander of the Taliban was turned in by a civilian tip that led to a Pakistani military raid with the end result of six dead Taliban, including the commander, Ihsanullah alias Pir.

From the report at DAWN:

A key militant commander was killed along with his five comrade-in-arms in two different incidents in Swat on Monday, a security official said. One security man was also wounded in the action. In a major raid, since the end of Operation Rah-i-Rast in July last, security forces surrounded a house in Kanju in Kabal tehsil and after intense 12-hour siege killed a key militant commander, Ihsanullah alias Pir, along with his three fighters. Curfew was imposed in Kanju, Dheri, Koza Banda and surrounding areas The official said the raid was conducted on a tip-off. He described Ihsanullah as a senior militant commander of the rank and stature of Fateh and Ibn-i-Amin, two important leaders of Taliban in Swat.

As we have seen, the Swat Valley was basically cleared out by the Pakistani army quite awhile ago which makes this hit even more significant as you can see from the article what this Taliban commander's role was meant to be:

“Ihsan was sent to organise a new round of insurgency in Swat. We have had intelligence but couldn’t trace him and finally came the tip-off,” the official said.

All too often we've seen the Taliban get cleared from an area, whether it be in Afghanistan or Pakistan, only to send pockets of them back into that area to set up shop again so this is a significant hit against the Taliban and their plans to reinvigorate the Swat Valley.

Key militant commander among six killed in Swat


MINGORA: A key militant commander was killed along with his five comrade-in-arms in two different incidents in Swat on Monday, a security official said. One security man was also wounded in the action.

In a major raid, since the end of Operation Rah-i-Rast in July last, security forces surrounded a house in Kanju in Kabal tehsil and after intense 12-hour siege killed a key militant commander, Ihsanullah alias Pir, along with his three fighters. Curfew was imposed in Kanju, Dheri, Koza Banda and surrounding areas

The official said the raid was conducted on a tip-off. He described Ihsanullah as a senior militant commander of the rank and stature of Fateh and Ibn-i-Amin, two important leaders of Taliban in Swat.

“Ihsan was sent to organise a new round of insurgency in Swat. We have had intelligence but couldn’t trace him and finally came the tip-off,” the official said.

According to unconfirmed reports, Fateh was believed to have been killed in a helicopter gunship attack in Mohmand two months ago while Ibn-i-Amin is also believed to have moved to the tribal region after fleeing his last sanctuary in Bajaur.

The official said that militants fired at security forces and kept them at bay for quite some time, before soldiers managed to go near the house and cause a breach in the wall for action.

One of the militants, he said, blew himself up, while two others were killed as they came out of the house firing at the security forces, while one was captured in wounded position. The official also attributed the recent incidents of target killings to the group hiding in Kanju.

Meanwhile, military sources said a militant commander Anwar and his deputy Sadiq were killed in exchange of fire with security forces in Ghaligi Darra of tehsil Barikot. They belonged to Odigram area. Arms were also recovered from their possession.

KOHAT:



Two militants were killed and a security person was injured during a clash in Zarghun Khel area of Darra Adamkhel on Monday.

Sources said that militants launched a major attack at the security checkpost in Noor Ali Kalay in Zarghun Khel and injured Frontier Corps naib subedar Zaheer.

The FC repulsed the attack and killed two fleeing militants identified as Ayub and Samiullah of Tariq Afridi group of Taliban. Security forces also arrested 11 suspected militants in the area. Helicopter gunships also targeted militants’ hideouts in the mountains of Darra Adamkhel.

LANDI KOTAL:



The political administration of Khyber Agency imposed curfew in parts of Tirah in anticipation of a military operation in the valley.

Officials said that curfew was imposed from Chamkani to Lakar Bara areas. They said that at least 25 suspects were also arrested during a search operation in those areas. Officials, however, did not provide any timeframe of the operation in Tirah. They said that a large number of Taliban had entered Tirah after fleeing Orakzai Agency.

Regarding Taliban, Pakistani Army Chief Vows: "Operation to go on til militants are eliminated"

What great, great news to see the head of Pakistan's army make a total commitment to the elimination of the Taliban in the Malakland division ( a swath of several NW Provincial agencies including Dir and Swat)! From the story at DAWN:

Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said the army will stay in Malakand division till the elimination of last militant and restoration of peace in the region.

Gen Kayani said the militants had tried to establish a parallel government and challenged the writ of government in Swat and Malakand, but security forces in cooperation with local people defeated them in a short span of time.

Unfortunately, while the Pakistanis HAVE had good success especially in Swat and Malakland, the Taliban are still lousy throughout the region but it is quite reassuring to hear this level of commitment from the head of the army. One thing I have noticed is that the Taliban don't even offer up a proposed peace agreement anymore - I think that has a lot to do with the fact that they are too busy running and hiding, running and hiding and trying not to get killed.


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Operation to go on till militants eliminated


SWAT/KHAR: Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said the army will stay in Malakand division till the elimination of last militant and restoration of peace in the region.

He was addressing a jirga of elders, Ulema and notables at the Circuit House in Mingora during a visit to Swat on Wednesday. He was accompanied by Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Yasin Malak, incharge of Sawt operation Maj-Gen Ashfaq Nadeem, incharge of Upper Swat operation Maj-Gen Javed Iqbal, Commissioner of Malakand Fazal Karim Khattak and other officers.

Gen Kayani said the militants had tried to establish a parallel government and challenged the writ of government in Swat and Malakand, but security forces in cooperation with local people defeated them in a short span of time.

He said that over two million people had been displaced but the forces made history by repatriating them to their areas in just three months. He said the people of Swat would not be left at the mercy of militants, adding that army personnel would protect their lives and property.

He said the detained militant leaders would be presented to the local court to decide their fate.The army chief said that peace committees would be strengthened to effectively frustrate militants’ designs to regroup.

He said the army had started rebuilding of educational institutions and taken up developmental projects which would be completed soon.

Gen Kayani inaugurated a government school in Shamozai. Speaking on the occasion, he assured local people that more solar energy units would be set up in the area. He laid floral wreath on the memorial of martyrs and offered Fateha at Shuhada Park in Saidu Sharif. He also visited the public library and orphanage in the town.

Our correspondent in Bajaur adds: The army chief said the backbone of militants had been broken and positive results had been achieved in the Bajaur tribal region.

Addressing a jirga of elders of Tarkhani and Othmankhel tribes in Khar on Wednesday, Gen Kayani praised the role of tribal people during the military operations.

He was accompanied by Lt-Gen Asif Yasin Malak and Inspector General of Frontier Corps Maj-Gen Tariq Khan.

Gen Kayani said that militants had been eliminated, writ of government had been established and now the tribal region would see progress and prosperity.

The army chief met soldiers and praised their role in flushing out militants from the region.

Pakistani Security Forces Bag A Senior Taliban Commander In Shootout In Swat

Great news! The Pakistani security forces in Swat received a tip and surrounded a house and lo and behold, the two jihadis in the house decided to try and fight their way out and didn't do such a good job of it with both being shot to pieces. The excellent news is that one of the two in the house was senior Taliban commander, Mohammad Alam Binouri. Bye Bye Binouri.

The word has to be spreading across NW Pakistan that if you are a Taliban commander of any rank, you are on a multitude of wanted lists and quite frankly, there are plenty of forces out to get you...from U.S. predator drone hellfires to Pakistani security forces to Pakistani air support strikes to Pakistani military operations. Can you imagine the chatter going on about now between Taliban commanders in the field as to where in the sam hell they can find a safe place to even rest for a few days? Hahahaha. I love it. Good luck finding those promised virgins in Hell, Binouri...just don't look inside door #2 because that's where they keep the flesh eating worms that will feed on you for all of eternity.

Here's the story from DAWN.

Senior Taliban commander killed in Swat clash

PESHAWAR: A senior Taliban commander has been killed in a clash with security forces in Pakistan's Swat valley, where the military claims to have quelled an uprising, officials said Monday.
Mohammad Alam Binouri, who had a 10-million-rupee (117,000-dollar) reward on his head, was killed with another militant in the gun battle in the town of Madyan in the mountainous northwestern region late Sunday, local police officer Islam Jan said.
Army and paramilitary soldiers acting on a tip-off surrounded a house in the town, but the men resisted and Binouri was killed in an exchange of fire, a military official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP.
“The bodies of the insurgents were placed in the main bazaar of Madyan, where the residents identified the pair,” said the police officer, Jan. He said Binouri was a close aide of fugitive Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.
Binouri was killed along with fellow-commander Shankoo Mullah, while three other wounded militants were captured alive, the military official said.
The bodies were taken to Swat's main town Mingora, where the wounded insurgents are being interrogated.
Fazlullah, who has a 50-million-rupee bounty on his head, remains at large.

Pakistani Helicopter Gunships Destroy Taliban Suicide Bomber Camp, 6 Taliban Killed

This is one of the better coordinated attacks on the Taliban camps in the Swat Valley as the Pakistani military sent helicopter gunships in today to destroy a suicide bomber training camp in the Swat Valley and netted a kill of 6 Taliban during the process.

One has to keep his fingers crossed that the Pakistanis will keep this up - there is no question that they have taken a big toll on the Taliban and much to my disbelief, the Pakistani government has kept up the pressure now for almost two months.

The story from Breitbart:

Pakistan destroys suicide bomber training camp

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Helicopter gunships destroyed a training camp for suicide bombers in Pakistan's Swat Valley, killing six Taliban fighters, an official said Saturday as scattered violence killed 12 others in the region recently retaken by the army.
The camp's trainees—including teenagers—were responsible for at least three attacks in recent weeks, an army spokesman said.
The air raid on the training facility, located on a small island in the Swat River opposite the town of Charbagh, came Friday night after local residents tipped off security forces of its location, according to Lt. Col. Akhtar Abbas, the army spokesman in Swat.

Intelligence reports linked the camp to attacks that killed a total of 10 soldiers and civilians this month, he said. Two of the attacks took place last weekend near Mingora, the valley's main town, and another was earlier this month in a more remote area.
"We have been working to find their source, and today we destroyed that source," Abbas told The Associated Press.
The army had declared Charbagh, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) east of Mingora, clear of militants except for small pockets of resistance.
Abbas said another six militants were killed in two separate operations elsewhere in Swat. In one operation, five Taliban fighters were killed, including a close aid to a high-ranking Taliban commander, Shah Doraan.
The officer said military operations were weakening the Taliban, and that many had chosen to turn themselves in rather than fight.
"With every day passing, the noose is being tightened around them, and that's why more and more of them are opting to surrender," Abbas said.
The army said it had arrested another 11 suspected militants in separate search operations in the region.
Security forces have been winding down a nearly three-month offensive to dislodge the Taliban from the Swat Valley and surrounding areas, but sporadic clashes continue. The army has also been accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings of suspected Taliban and then dumping their bodies on streets in towns around Swat. Security forces have strongly denied the allegations.
On Saturday, residents said they found the bullet-riddled bodies of six people they identified as militants in Odigram, a village near Mingora. It was unclear who killed them.
The bodies found included two brothers who were well-known local Taliban commanders, villager Mohammed Salman said Saturday.
The United Nations said this past week that about 1.5 million people who had fled fighting in the wider region were returning home, and the World Health Organization said it was concerned about providing health support for them.
Authorities also have been battling militants in Pakistan's lawless and remote tribal belt along its northwestern border with Afghanistan.
Two intelligence and a government official said one militant was killed and another captured during an attack on a security checkpoint that wounded a soldier in the North Waziristan tribal region.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to media, said an unspecified number of militants in a car attacked the checkpoint on a main road linking the area to South Waziristan, the heartland of Taliban.
Police were investigating the possible al-Qaida links of 12 suspected foreign militants arrested Friday on the edge of the tribal area, after they allegedly sneaked into the country from Iran, Punjab provincial police official Mohamad Rizwan said.
"One thing is certain, that they are terrorists," Rizwan said.
The men from Sudan, Russia, Turkey and Iran were arrested in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan, said Hassan Iqbal, a district official. Police also seized a laptop computer and $10,000 from the men, he said.
The detainees "had links with Taliban" and wanted to go to Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region, Iqbal said, without giving further details.
South Waziristan is a stronghold of former Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed by a CIA missile strike earlier this month.
Pakistan has deployed more than 100,000 troops in the tribal regions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Authorities have arrested about 1,000 Taliban and al-Qaida suspects over the past few years, including senior aides to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Al-Zawahri, in a video posted Thursday on Islamic militant Web sites, said a Pakistani offensive against the Taliban in the Swat Valley was doomed to fail. He urged Pakistanis to "back the jihad (holy war) and mujahedeen" with fighters, money and support.

Top Taliban Commander In Pakistan Along With 60 Fighters Surrenders To Pakistani Forces

This is a very brief article here at Dawn but fairly major news as a top Pakistani Taliban leader has surrendered to Pakistani military forces along with 60 of his jihadis.

Let's look at the story:

Taliban commander surrenders with 60 comrades

ISLAMABAD: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Khurshid, a close ally of Fazlullah, along with 60 comrades voluntarily surrendered to District Coordination Officer Mingora at Saidu Airport. According to ISPR here Thursday, the surrender was also witnessed by a number of notables of the area, while the operation, Rah-e-Raast is continuing in Swat and Malakand Division.
Security forces conducted search operation at Kukarai whereby killing 2 terrorists while, apprehending five Afghan nationals from Charbagh. Security forces apprehended 3 suspects during routine checking at Rashagatta and destroyed a terrorists training camp besides demolishing 10 houses and discovered a cave of about 20 feet length in Dir.

Now, the article mentions Fazlullah - Fazlullah is the #1 Taliban commander in the Swat Valley and orchestrated the take over of the Swat Valley a number of months ago and was mostly responsible for bringing the wrath of the Pakistani military down on the Swat area.

To have a significant leader such as Khurshid just up and surrender shows the dire straits that the Taliban have reached in the whole Swat region. I have no idea how good the Pakistanis are in interrogation but Khurshid probably has more intel on the Taliban in the region than any possible other prisoner ever taken. One can only hope he sings like a canary.

Pakistani Army Getting Close To Clearing Swat Valley of Taliban, 66 Taliban Killed in Last 24 Hours

Great news from NW Pakistan! In the past 24 hours, the Pakistani military has killed 66 Taliban as it continues the offensive in Pakistan's Swat Valley and it is also being reported here at Bloomberg that Pakistani tribesmen are joining the fight against the Taliban.

Here's the entire article - let's hope the Pakistani's don't stop at the Swat border:

Pakistan Army Says 66 Militants Killed in Northwest

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s army said 66 militants were killed in the northwest in the last 24 hours as troops and local tribesmen pursue an offensive to rout the Taliban.
Four soldiers died and 12 were hurt in parts of the Swat Valley, Buner and Dir districts and in South Waziristan, a tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, the military said on its Web site today. One civilian was killed and two were injured by a rocket fired by militants in Bannu, near North Waziristan. Nine insurgents were arrested.
As many as 400 militants attacked forces in South Waziristan late yesterday, the army said. Tribesmen destroyed three of their hideouts and an ammunition dump in Dir. In North West Frontier Province, provincial minister Mian Nasir was hurt today when gunmen attacked his car, GEO television said.
Pakistani security forces say they are close to driving insurgents from the Swat Valley and neighboring districts. The offensive began April 26 when the Taliban violated a February peace accord that introduced Islamic law in the region and advanced to within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Islamabad.
The U.S. says insurgents have regrouped in the tribal areas from where they threaten the nuclear-armed nation’s security and hamper the fight in neighboring Afghanistan. The Obama administration has pledged $1.5 billion in annual aid on the condition Pakistan tackles extremists.
Hotel Attack
The latest battles follow a suicide-bomb attack on June 9 that killed 16 people, including two United Nations employees, at the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistani authorities have linked bombings in the northwest to the army’s offensive and say Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud had warned of retaliation.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the majority of terrorist attacks are planned in South Waziristan.
Pakistan first sent troops into the tribal areas to confront Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in 2003. Hundreds of soldiers were killed and others taken hostage as tribal chiefs who opposed the advance backed their fellow ethnic Pashtuns in the Taliban.
The chances of a successful campaign are better now, with tribesmen less likely to support the insurgents, Ishtiaq Ahmed associate professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, said in an interview.
The tribal regions guard their semi-autonomy. The central government is represented in each tribal agency by one agent under an accord between elders and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, after independence from Britain 62 years ago.

Good Sign From Pakistan: Taliban Shaving Off Beards, Captured Hiding With Refugees

You know, this really IS a good sign that the Pakistani military is putting a can of whoopass on the Taliban in the Swat Valley operation as police are capturing Taliban who are hiding amongst civilian refugees to try and escape the onslaught. Here's the entire article from Breitbart:

Police: Taliban suspects among Pakistani refugees

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - A senior police official says 39 suspected Taliban fighters have been arrested hiding among refugees from fighting in Pakistan's northwest.
The police chief of the Mardan district where camps have been set up to house some of the around 2 million people who fled the military offensive in the Swat Valley says alleged Taliban had disguised themselves among the refugees.

Syed Akhtar Ali Shah said the 39 suspects had shaved off the beards that many conservative Muslims consider a sign of piety.
The military says it has killed more than 1,100 militants in its month-old campaign to rout the Taliban from Swat and surrounding regions, an offensive that is strongly backed by Washington.

So 39 of the "mighty warriors" of the army of Mullah Omar are resorting to shaving off their beards and cowering amongst the women, children and goats outside of Swat ... don't know if that's going to be much of a recruitment tool for the Taliban.

One thing you will notice over the last two weeks - there literally have been NO reports of schools being blown up in Swat or any women beheaded or local governmental officials being kidnapped. Notice that? Well, one has to hope that the Pakistani government has noticed it as well and continues to put the hammer to the Taliban in the Swat Valley. And even more hopefully, it would be stellar to see the Pakistani military take this offensive to even more districts and provinces.

It Appears That Hell Froze Over: Pakistani Government Turns Down Peace Deal From Taliban in Swat Valley

I gotta tell ya, I was holding my breath reading this story from CNN where the Taliban have offered to put down their weapons in the Swat Valley in return for the peace deal previously negotiated....I was almost turning blue waiting to read that the government had agreed...but then, there it was...like a bright laser beam out of the darkness: the Pakistani government told the Taliban to go pound sand. Yes, for the first time in recent memory, the new government of Pakistan actually said no to the Taliban! But believe me, I won't rest easy because you never know what tomorrow will hold. But in the meantime, let's relish in the fact that the beaten up Taliban are panicking and trying to pull out all stops to get the army's shelling off their backs.

Here's some of the details from the article:

The Pakistani Taliban -- under pressure in fighting with the military -- said Tuesday it wants to return to a peace deal that recently collapsed.

That collapse sparked the ongoing massive military operation, a Taliban spokesman said Tuesday.
Taliban militants in Swat Valley have announced that they are willing to disarm if the Pakistani government allows sharia, or Islamic law, to be implemented in the region, a spokesman for Taliban mediator Sufi Mohammed said.
The government rejected the offer, saying the Taliban must pull out of Swat or face arrest, state information minister Syed Sumsam Ali Shah Bukhari said Tuesday. According to Bukhari, the offer shows that the Taliban's morale is down and they are retreating.

Now, I hate to rain on my own parade but I hadn't even thought about another possible twist to this scenario. What if the Obama administration contacts the Pakistani government and insists that they take the Taliban's deal?! Hmmm....wouldn't that make President Obama a hero with the Taliban, huh? I doubt that Obama would frown on any implementation of sharia law anywhere and he might just feel this olive branch to the Taliban might help his efforts in Afghanistan to reach out to the so-called "moderate" Taliban there. Okay, I see you shaking your head but look me in the eye and tell me this just COULD NOT happen. See? You can't.

The Pakistani military has these numbnuts on the run, they've inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban and could actually run the Taliban out of the Swat Valley in about a month - one can only hope and pray that they put the pedal to the floor on this and see that it gets done and that they don't stop there and keep pushing them north, north, north.

Taliban seek return to peace deal in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani Taliban -- under pressure in fighting with the military -- said Tuesday it wants to return to a peace deal that recently collapsed.

That collapse sparked the ongoing massive military operation, a Taliban spokesman said Tuesday.
Taliban militants in Swat Valley have announced that they are willing to disarm if the Pakistani government allows sharia, or Islamic law, to be implemented in the region, a spokesman for Taliban mediator Sufi Mohammed said.
The government rejected the offer, saying the Taliban must pull out of Swat or face arrest, state information minister Syed Sumsam Ali Shah Bukhari said Tuesday. According to Bukhari, the offer shows that the Taliban's morale is down and they are retreating.
The lastest round of fighting has killed an estimated 1,100 Taliban militants and 75 Pakistani security personnel, Pakistan's military said Tuesday. Another 226 Pakistani security personnel have been wounded, the military said.
Mohammed negotiated the previous deal between the Taliban and the government, which called for the same arrangement.

That deal fell apart because the Taliban refused to disarm and moved into the Buner district, located outside of the region that the government allowed them to control.
The government has said it will only allow sharia if it does not contradict Pakistan's constitution. There are many interpretations of Islamic law, but the Taliban's version has curbed human rights, forcing women indoors, men to grow beards, and shops to stop selling movies and music.

Is Pakistan Pulling The Wool Over Our Eyes On Success Of Swat Operation?

Let's face it - there are more conflicting reports coming in each day about the success or failure of the Pakistani military's operations in the Swat Valley than you can shake a stick at - we literally have a Pakistani official claiming 700 Taliban dead, the Pakistani military saying 300 Taliban have bit it and some outside observers saying it isn't even close to those estimates. At this article from The Long War Journal you will see what some American officials are saying about how the Pakistani government is blowing smoke on the whole operation. Here's a few excerpts:

US military and intelligence officials are expressing skepticism about Pakistani claims of high Taliban casualties as the fighting spreads in the volatile northwest.
The Pakistani military's daily reports of hundreds of Taliban fighters killed in the districts of Swat, Shangla, Dir, and Buner are "wildly exaggerated," a senior US intelligence official who is closely watching the operations in Pakistan told The Long War Journal.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, claimed that more than 700 Taliban fighters were killed in the last four days in Swat alone, Dawn reported. But a US intelligence official described Malik's claim as "fantastic."
"Malik's numbers are even more fantastic than those given by the Pakistani military, which has claimed more than 300 Taliban fighters were killed since late last week," a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. "Clearly they [the Pakistani security establishment] want us to believe they're having fantastic success against the Taliban."
"The numbers issued by the military are wildly exaggerated," a military intelligence official said, noting that the military is over-relying on air and artillery strikes instead of engaging the Taliban. "This is like a bad movie we've all seen before. The Pakistani military levels large areas, claims success, and thinks we'll be conned into believing it if they pump up the Taliban body counts."

In one other report there is a statement by a Pakistani official that things are going so well for the military that he expects a successful end of the operation soon - now, if that isn't a sign of crapola, I've never seen one. Let's face the facts...you simply do not lob a bunch of artillery shells into a number of areas and destroy the Taliban. You do not rout the Taliban by sending in a few waves of helicopter gunships. This has been documented by NATO and U.S. efforts in Afghanistan - the Taliban react to offensives by disbanding...they scatter....they don't give a shit about simply fading into the landscape and mountains and wait another day for their chance to simply gain back any ground that has been lost.

At the same time, I do believe there has been some morale losses for the Taliban - they have been fairly quiet over the last week and usually, they are flapping their gums daily. I would say that we've probably seen Taliban losses closer to 200 in the past week but that the actual number of Taliban in the Swat Valley have been widely exaggerated - I think the neighboring districts and provinces hold many, many more of them and once the military ends the operations, we will see the gradual flow of Taliban return - it always works that way and what the Pakistani government will have to admit one of these days is simply that they have a cancer inside its borders that will not go away with a shot or two of radiation...it will be many years before this cancer will be excised, if ever.

Pakistani claims of high Taliban casualties 'wildly exaggerated' - US officials

US military and intelligence officials are expressing skepticism about Pakistani claims of high Taliban casualties as the fighting spreads in the volatile northwest.
The Pakistani military's daily reports of hundreds of Taliban fighters killed in the districts of Swat, Shangla, Dir, and Buner are "wildly exaggerated," a senior US intelligence official who is closely watching the operations in Pakistan told The Long War Journal.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's Interior Minister, claimed that more than 700 Taliban fighters were killed in the last four days in Swat alone, Dawn reported. But a US intelligence official described Malik's claim as "fantastic."
"Malik's numbers are even more fantastic than those given by the Pakistani military, which has claimed more than 300 Taliban fighters were killed since late last week," a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. "Clearly they [the Pakistani security establishment] want us to believe they're having fantastic success against the Taliban."
"The numbers issued by the military are wildly exaggerated," a military intelligence official said, noting that the military is over-relying on air and artillery strikes instead of engaging the Taliban. "This is like a bad movie we've all seen before. The Pakistani military levels large areas, claims success, and thinks we'll be conned into believing it if they pump up the Taliban body counts."
The military said more than 15,000 troops, including units from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, are engaged against an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Taliban fighters in Swat. Malik's numbers would indicate that the Taliban have suffered 10 percent killed and likely another 20 to 30 percent wounded.
The status of the fight in Swat casts doubts on the Pakistani military's claims on Taliban casualties. "The Taliban are still holding firm in Swat, the military has largely been kept at bay," a US military officer said. "If they've suffered such high casualties, I wouldn't expect this."
Meanwhile, the military continues its heay-handed approach to counterinsurgency in the northwest. Multiple reports from the region indicate the Army is shelling villages indiscriminately without allowing civilians to flee the area and with little or no intelligence on the Taliban presence in the region.
As the fighting continues in Swat and neighboring Dir and Buner, the Taliban have expanded their operations into the tribal areas and in neighboring districts. Large Taliban forces, operating at the company and battalion level, have conducted attacks on military bases and convoys in Mohmand and South Waziristan, and have been interdicting military convoys in Mardan and Malakand.
"The military's engagements in Mohmand and South Waziristan have been defensive in nature," the military officer said. "They're responding to Taliban attacks, not taking the fight to them."
The Taliban attacks outside of the Swat theater continue. Today, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 13 Pakistanis after ramming a car packed with explosives into a Frontier Corps checkpoint in Darra Adam Khel.

Pakistani President: ' the step we have taken will not be withdrawn '

Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, has pledged that the military operation taken by the Pakistani military in the Swat Valley will NOT be withdrawn. In other words, he is saying that like EVERY OTHER TIME, there will be no wimping out and letting the Taliban off the hook. We'll see, I guess. Here's some of the details from the Pakistani President's speech here in America from the article at Dawn:

In his address to the Pakistani community in Washington on Friday night, the president urged the militants not to fight the Pakistani military and lay down their arms.
‘This is my pledge to you, the step we have taken will not be withdrawn,’ said the president when a member of the audience urged him not to recall the army from Swat until the militants were defeated.
The president said he delayed a military action in Swat because it was a difficult decision to make.
‘It is easy for an army to fight the enemy in another country, but to launch a military offensive inside your own country is not easy,’ he said. ‘But we accepted this challenge.’

You know, this all sounds fairly good and proper but one has to challenge the Pakistani President about this whole idea of launching an offensive inside of Pakistan is suspect. It has been documented, the number of foreign fighters that have swarmed into Pakistan - whether it is the Taliban fighters from the north or the Arab elements of al Qaeda and yet he is saying that they dragged their feet on launching an offensive because it was inside of Pakistan? Well, the questions begs: Why did you allow the influx INTO your country, sir, in the first place? And second, if you have enemies killing people inside of your country, why the hesitation?

I'm not convinced that this guy will not stop the offensive at the very first sign of a surrender/peace offering by the Taliban and we all know that you can't trust the Taliban as far as you can throw their scrawny bodies. I've said it before - Pakistan has one chance of getting out of this and that is driving the Taliban out of Swat completely and then systematically pushing through all of the NW Provinces and doing the same thing. If they claim some sort of victory in Swat and pull back, they will be back in there in less than 3 months.

No turning back on Swat offensive, says president

WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the operation against the militants in Swat will continue and he will not withdraw the step he has taken.
In his address to the Pakistani community in Washington on Friday night, the president urged the militants not to fight the Pakistani military and lay down their arms.
‘This is my pledge to you, the step we have taken will not be withdrawn,’ said the president when a member of the audience urged him not to recall the army from Swat until the militants were defeated.
The president said he delayed a military action in Swat because it was a difficult decision to make.
‘It is easy for an army to fight the enemy in another country, but to launch a military offensive inside your own country is not easy,’ he said. ‘But we accepted this challenge.’
The government, he said, went to Parliament and got ‘political ownership’ for its strategy to combat the militants.
Before ordering the offensive, the government engaged the militants because it was seeking a peaceful end to this crisis, he added, but the militants mistook it for a sign of weakness.
‘They rejected our peace gesture and challenged the government, we accepted their challenge,’ Mr Zardari said.
‘We told them, if you want to harm Pakistan, you are not Pakistanis and we will fight you. We will fight to protect Pakistan. We will fight to protect our coming generations.’
The president said that those who took up arms against Pakistan were not Pakistanis either. ‘I urge my misguided friends not to harm Pakistan. We will not let you do so.’
The president said that those who want Pakistan to fight a superpower were also misguided. ‘We do not want to fight anyone because we have no differences with the international community.’
The president also said that the government was taking some difficult measures to pull the country out of the current economic crisis. ‘These measures are painful but we have to take them,’ he said.
Mr Zardari said the government had made a comprehensive plan to deal with the power shortage and the people will soon see the results of this plan,
The president said that the PPP stood for Pakistan when everybody after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination when everybody thought it would not so, but the party workers proved them wrong.
Mr. Zardari said that while Pakistan had close relations with China; his government wanted good relations with India as well and he was taking steps to achieve this target.
Both India and China, he said, were major markets and Pakistan wanted to enter those markets and benefit from their prosperity.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi told the audience that the government was following a balanced foreign policy, seeking good relations with all major world powers and with the neighboring states.
The minister said that the trilateral talks held in Washington this week led to a comprehensive strategy which will enable the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan to defeat the militants.
The foreign minister said that several important decisions were taking during these talks:
Afghanistan and Pakistan signed an MOU for opening a transit route which will encourage trade between South and Central Asia. They also reaffirmed an understanding with the World Bank for electricity trade between the two regions.
The US Congress introduced a bill to provide $1.5 billion of annual aid to Pakistan. The US gave five helicopters to Pakistan and also released payments for the held-up military bills. Important decisions were taken to promote agriculture and for water-management.

Thousands of Pakistanis Flee The Swat Valley As Truce Has Evaporated, Taliban Force Showdown

In as concise terms as I can use, "it's on" in Pakistan's Swat Valley. This article here from Breitbart even states that the Pakistani government has no choice now at this point but to take on the Taliban and it ain't going to be easy. Whatever was left of the so-called peace agreement in the Swat Valley is completely gone and the Taliban are not wasting anytime in taking over government buildings, laying landmines and IED's, and causing thousands of Pakistani villagers to flee the entire valley. This is going to be one ugly showdown, folks...that is if the Pakistani government decides to actually take the area back. Here's some excerpts from the article:

Turbaned Taliban militants seized government buildings, laid mines and fought security forces Tuesday in the Swat Valley, as fear of a major operation led thousands to pack their belongings on their heads and backs, cram aboard buses and flee the northwestern region.
The collapse of a 3-month-old truce with the Taliban means Pakistan will now have to fight to regain control of the Swat Valley, testing the ability of its stretched military and the resolve of civilian leaders who until recently were insisting the insurgents could be partners in peace. The government feared the refugee exodus could reach half a million people.

Fearing that war could consume the region, thousands fled the main Swat town of Mingora on Tuesday, witnesses said. Refugees clambered onto the roofs of buses after seats and floors filled up. Children and adults alike carried belongings on their heads and backs.
"I do not have any destination. I only have an aim—to escape from here," said Afzal Khan, 65, who was waiting for a bus with his wife and nine children. "It is like doomsday here. It is like hell."
Shafi Ullah, a student, said the whole town was fleeing.

Late Tuesday, several dozen militants surrounded a police residential compound and an adjoining station in Saidu Sharif after occupying the offices of the police chief and the civil administration, said an officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"The limited forces inside the police building cannot survive for long unless the militants are engaged from outside," he said from inside the station. "We are in war conditions and need reinforcements and supplies."

Okay, so it is looking damn bleak in the Swat Valley as you can see and you can sure bet on one thing - every single available Taliban fighter in the entire area is being moved into the Swat Valley as I type this. I hate to say I told you so but it was many, many months ago that I blogged about the fact that the Pakistani government was in deep shit by even letting the Taliban into Pakistan's NW provinces - and they let them spread out and of course, they started in with all of the peace agreements and so now it has ALL come back to haunt them.

Pakistan's government has a very hard decision ahead of them and that is this - their only chance, in my view, of taking back the Swat Valley is going to be a huge bombardment of the area by air and by artillery...and that is going to mean some large civilian casualties. But what choice do they have other than concede the area to the Taliban? None. In my view.

Thousands flee Pakistan valley as truce crumbles

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) - Turbaned Taliban militants seized government buildings, laid mines and fought security forces Tuesday in the Swat Valley, as fear of a major operation led thousands to pack their belongings on their heads and backs, cram aboard buses and flee the northwestern region.
The collapse of a 3-month-old truce with the Taliban means Pakistan will now have to fight to regain control of the Swat Valley, testing the ability of its stretched military and the resolve of civilian leaders who until recently were insisting the insurgents could be partners in peace. The government feared the refugee exodus could reach half a million people.

The developments brought Islamabad's faltering campaign against militancy into sharp focus as President Asif Ali Zardari was preparing to hold talks with President Barack Obama in Washington on how best to counter an increasingly overlapping spectrum of extremist groups behind surging violence here and in neighboring Afghanistan. Complicating matters, some of these groups have enjoyed support from Pakistan's intelligence services.
"We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taliban and its allies," Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in Washington. "We cannot succeed in Afghanistan without Pakistan's support and involvement."
Pakistan has waged several offensives in the border region against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in recent years. Most have ended inconclusively or with peace deals amid public anger over civilian casualties and distaste for taking on fellow Muslims. The army has long focused on the threat posed by longtime rival India and is not used to the demands of guerrilla warfare.
Fearing that war could consume the region, thousands fled the main Swat town of Mingora on Tuesday, witnesses said. Refugees clambered onto the roofs of buses after seats and floors filled up. Children and adults alike carried belongings on their heads and backs.
"I do not have any destination. I only have an aim—to escape from here," said Afzal Khan, 65, who was waiting for a bus with his wife and nine children. "It is like doomsday here. It is like hell."
Shafi Ullah, a student, said the whole town was fleeing.
"Can you hear the explosions? Can you hear the gunshots?" he said, pointing to a part of town where fighting was continuing.
It is far from certain that the Pakistani public has the stomach for a long battle in Swat. Given that the militants have had time to rest and reinforce their positions in the three months since the truce took effect, any operation would involve fierce fighting in an urban setting and almost certainly cause significant civilian casualties and damage to property.
In recent days, however, there have been signs of a turn in mood against the Taliban. Many commentators now say the movement's true nature was exposed by its refusal to go along with the peace deal despite the government's best efforts.