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http://www.military.com/news/articl...unds-taliban-positions.html?col=1186032307786
Pakistan Army Pounds Taliban Positions
April 30, 2009
Agence France-Presse
Pakistan pounded Taliban hideouts for a third consecutive day Thursday and said troops killed 14 insurgents in 24 hours as the president urged the nation to unite behind the offensive.
Faced with grave US concerns that rebels threaten Pakistan's very existence, fighter jets, attack helicopter and tanks this week opened three fronts after armed Taliban seized control of districts 100 kilometres from Islamabad.
The fighters captured Lower Dir and Buner districts despite a government deal to enforce sharia law in those areas in a bid to end a Taliban insurgency, which alarmed Pakistan's allies in the White House and the West.
Operation Black Thunder was launched under intense pressure from the United States, which warned that the Taliban's advance from its insurgency hub in the Swat Valley was posing a severe threat to Islamabad's authority.
The military said Thursday 14 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours of operations and that insurgent positions had been wiped out under fierce resistance across eight kilometres (five miles) of mountain tops in Buner.
Pakistan said around 70 militants and 10 soldiers were killed in Lower Dir. On Wednesday, the military said special forces dropped by helicopter re-took Dagar, the main town in Buner, and killed up to 50 Taliban fighters.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military was verifying an overall death toll and much of the district of Buner, where around one million people live, remained in Taliban hands.
Abbas said the militants had taken over police stations in three villages and were holding 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers hostage.
Residents in one village said Thursday that militants were putting up stiff resistance and had blown up two unmanned police checkpoints.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the country was facing a "critical hour" in its fight against militants linked to Al-Qaeda.
"Time has come for the entire nation to give pause to their political differences and rise to the occasion and give full support to our security forces," he said in a statement.
"This is the only way to demonstrate our will, to keep Pakistan as a moderate, modern and democratic state."
In February, the government acknowledged it had largely ceded control of the scenic Swat Valley and agreed that Islamic law could be enforced in a deal to end two years of a bloody rebellion led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
But the Taliban failed to disarm and earlier this month up to 500 Taliban militants pushed into Lower Dir and Buner, terrorising the local population.
The Taliban suspended peace talks with the government Monday after the military launched it latest offensive, and the longevity of February's deal was unclear.
Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, who helped negotiate the deal, Thursday emerged from days of hiding to address a gathering of about 1,000 people.
"Negotiations with the government will be started only when it stops the military operation," Mohammad said in one village.
US President Barack Obama has expressed concern that Pakistan's civilian government may be struggling to control the situation.
"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan," Obama said.
"I'm more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile," he said.
Since Obama took office the United States has ramped up missile strikes by unmanned planes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders in the northwest tribal region to the north of Swat, causing widespread anger in Pakistan.
In the latest attack, a suspected US missile strike on a vehicle in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, killed at least six militants late Wednesday.
US and British commanders battling the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan have grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan's inability to stem the flow of weapons and fighters from Pakistan's northern tribal regions.
© Copyright 2009 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Pakistan Army Pounds Taliban Positions
April 30, 2009
Agence France-Presse
Pakistan pounded Taliban hideouts for a third consecutive day Thursday and said troops killed 14 insurgents in 24 hours as the president urged the nation to unite behind the offensive.
Faced with grave US concerns that rebels threaten Pakistan's very existence, fighter jets, attack helicopter and tanks this week opened three fronts after armed Taliban seized control of districts 100 kilometres from Islamabad.
The fighters captured Lower Dir and Buner districts despite a government deal to enforce sharia law in those areas in a bid to end a Taliban insurgency, which alarmed Pakistan's allies in the White House and the West.
Operation Black Thunder was launched under intense pressure from the United States, which warned that the Taliban's advance from its insurgency hub in the Swat Valley was posing a severe threat to Islamabad's authority.
The military said Thursday 14 militants had been killed in the last 24 hours of operations and that insurgent positions had been wiped out under fierce resistance across eight kilometres (five miles) of mountain tops in Buner.
Pakistan said around 70 militants and 10 soldiers were killed in Lower Dir. On Wednesday, the military said special forces dropped by helicopter re-took Dagar, the main town in Buner, and killed up to 50 Taliban fighters.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military was verifying an overall death toll and much of the district of Buner, where around one million people live, remained in Taliban hands.
Abbas said the militants had taken over police stations in three villages and were holding 52 police officers and paramilitary soldiers hostage.
Residents in one village said Thursday that militants were putting up stiff resistance and had blown up two unmanned police checkpoints.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the country was facing a "critical hour" in its fight against militants linked to Al-Qaeda.
"Time has come for the entire nation to give pause to their political differences and rise to the occasion and give full support to our security forces," he said in a statement.
"This is the only way to demonstrate our will, to keep Pakistan as a moderate, modern and democratic state."
In February, the government acknowledged it had largely ceded control of the scenic Swat Valley and agreed that Islamic law could be enforced in a deal to end two years of a bloody rebellion led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
But the Taliban failed to disarm and earlier this month up to 500 Taliban militants pushed into Lower Dir and Buner, terrorising the local population.
The Taliban suspended peace talks with the government Monday after the military launched it latest offensive, and the longevity of February's deal was unclear.
Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, who helped negotiate the deal, Thursday emerged from days of hiding to address a gathering of about 1,000 people.
"Negotiations with the government will be started only when it stops the military operation," Mohammad said in one village.
US President Barack Obama has expressed concern that Pakistan's civilian government may be struggling to control the situation.
"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan," Obama said.
"I'm more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile," he said.
Since Obama took office the United States has ramped up missile strikes by unmanned planes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders in the northwest tribal region to the north of Swat, causing widespread anger in Pakistan.
In the latest attack, a suspected US missile strike on a vehicle in South Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, killed at least six militants late Wednesday.
US and British commanders battling the insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan have grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan's inability to stem the flow of weapons and fighters from Pakistan's northern tribal regions.
© Copyright 2009 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
