Pakistani Troops Secure Peshawar Area, 25 Taliban Killed

Good news out of Pakistan as paramilitary troops have concluded most of their two week operation to secure the area around Peshawar with 22 out of 25 villages purged of Taliban and 25 Taliban killed. Peshawar is of significance to the U.S. and NATO as much of the supply convoys going into Afghanistan goes by Peshawar.

Here's some of the details from Breitbart:

A two-week operation to secure the frontier city of Peshawar, which sits on a key supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, killed 25 suspected militants, a Pakistani official said Monday.
Security forces backed by warplanes and artillery swept through an area between the city and Pakistan's wild tribal belt, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants have found refuge.
Zafrullah Khan, commander of paramilitary Frontier Constabulary troops in the area, said his force and police have taken control of 22 of 25 targeted villages and would clear the others within a week.
"The militants in these areas have been a big threat to the writ of the government," Khan said. "They have been a main source and origin of the crimes in Peshawar and other cities of the province."
Some 25 suspects have been killed and another 35 arrested during the operation, he said. He said those detained included foreigners, but provided no details.

I said it a couple of weeks ago here that I am finding fewer and fewer articles about major battles in Afghanistan between NATO forces and the Taliban and I am convinced that most of that is due to the pressures that have been applied in Pakistan - both from the government forces of Pakistan and the wave of predator bombings strikes by the U.S. there. I haven't seen any kind of explanation of this from any expert, but it's my contention that the Taliban simply are not moving into Afghanistan like they used to for fear of being hit by predator drones and also because their movements have been disrupted by the operations of the Pakistani army.

Up until about four months ago, the Taliban could simply move into Afghanistan without a second thought about any pressure on their flanks and they certainly didn't have to worry about their return to Pakistan - that, for the moment, is not the case anymore.

Pakistan says militants pushed back from Peshawar

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A two-week operation to secure the frontier city of Peshawar, which sits on a key supply route for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, killed 25 suspected militants, a Pakistani official said Monday.
Security forces backed by warplanes and artillery swept through an area between the city and Pakistan's wild tribal belt, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants have found refuge.
Zafrullah Khan, commander of paramilitary Frontier Constabulary troops in the area, said his force and police have taken control of 22 of 25 targeted villages and would clear the others within a week.
"The militants in these areas have been a big threat to the writ of the government," Khan said. "They have been a main source and origin of the crimes in Peshawar and other cities of the province."
Some 25 suspects have been killed and another 35 arrested during the operation, he said. He said those detained included foreigners, but provided no details.
Four suicide jackets and weapons, including guns, rockets and grenades were seized, he said.
Rising violence in the northwest, including the shooting death of an American aid worker in Peshawar, have heightened concern that the city itself is under threat.
Pakistani troops have been battling Taliban militants in Bajur, a nearby tribal region, since August. The fighting has spread to neighboring Mohmand, which borders the villages targeted in the sweep near Peshawar.
The city is a vital hub for military and relief efforts in Pakistan's northwest as well as lying on a supply route for foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan.