PAKISTAN SAID it killed 60 militants and lost 11 soldiers as a 30,000-strong force pushed into the Taliban’s tribal stronghold on the second day of a major operation.
Taliban fighters offered fierce resistance as ground troops, backed by aircraft and artillery, pushed into South Waziristan, the mountain base of the notorious Tehrik i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Militants detonated roadside bombs and opened fire on helicopter gunships. Villagers, some of them women, waved white flags and troops searching houses discovered large weapons caches, the military said.
The Pakistan military said it had captured strategic heights near Razmak, a mountain village at the northern edge of South Waziristan, after fighting that left 10 militants and two soldiers dead.
The Taliban denied the claims. A spokesman insisted the guerrillas had inflicted “heavy casualties” and forced the invading soldiers back into their bases.
“We know how to fight this war and defeat the enemy with the minimum loss of our men,” Azam Tariq told the Associated Press from an undisclosed location.
The conflicting versions were impossible to reconcile. Inaccessible at the best of times, much of South Waziristan has been sealed off since the operation started on Saturday. Phone links have been disconnected.
The battle, pitting 30,000 soldiers against 10,000 Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, according to the army, followed two weeks of audacious assaults in cities that left more than 175 people dead and underlined the militant threat to Pakistan’s stability.
In the most shocking incident, a team of 10 gunmen laid siege to the army headquarters in Rawalpindi for 22 hours. All but one were killed. The army said the attack was orchestrated from South Waziristan.
The army has surrounded a mountainous swath of South Waziristan that is controlled by the Mehsud tribe, whose most notorious member, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a US drone in August. Mehsud’s successor as leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, vowed to take revenge, apparently triggering the recent wave of militant attacks.
The operation, which has been in the offing since June, has prompted more than 110,000 people to flee. Authorities expect another 140,000 to join them.
Soldiers are attacking the Mehsud territory from Razmak in the north, Jandola in the east and Wana in the south. Officials estimate the push will take a minimum of six weeks and could stretch through the winter.
The non-Mehsud parts of South Waziristan, which are controlled by the rival Wazir tribe and border with Afghanistan, have not been affected. The army hopes to repeat the success achieved against the Taliban in Swat this summer.
Riffat Hussain, a defence analyst, said the army’s goal was to “degrade” the capability of the Taliban to launch attacks from Waziristan, and to kill an estimated 800 to 1,500 foreign fighters – mainly from Uzbekistan – sheltering in the area.
The Uzbeks allied to al-Qaeda fled to Waziristan in 2001 and have become “naturalised citizens” through marriage and by training and funding local militants.
“The core objective is to kill as many of the foreign militants as possible,” said Mr Hussain.
“They have no place to go, they know the area well and are highly motivated. That’s a lethal combination.” – (Guardian service)