Reuters – Policemen search through the wreckage at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, the morning after a … BANNU, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan unleashed helicopter gunships and artillery to kill scores of Taliban fighters, officials said on Thursday, after opening a second front against militants near their stronghold in the Waziristan tribal region.
Already in the final stages of an operation to clear Islamist fighters from the Swat valley, far to the northwest and closer to Islamabad, the military went on the offensive on Tuesday in Bannu district after up to 800 militants infiltrated from Waziristan.
U.S. officials, worried that the Taliban could drive nuclear-armed Pakistan into chaos, have welcomed the Swat offensive and there has been talk that Waziristan, a hub of Taliban and al Qaeda activity, would be the army's next target.
Standing at the gateway to Waziristan, Bannu is 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), where a suicide truck bomb attack on a luxury hotel killed at least nine people on Tuesday.
A military statement said on Thursday that during the last 24 hours 66 militants had been killed in fighting mostly in Bannu and South Waziristan, but also Swat.
In Bannu alone, more than 130 militants have been killed since the army swung into action two days ago, according to military officers and a senior civilian official in the area. Independent casualty estimates were unavailable.
"The operation is going on very well. Helicopter gunships, artillery, everything is being used," Kamran Zeb, the top administrator in Bannu, told Reuters.
In South Waziristan, the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, around 400 militants attacked two forts in Jandola and Siplatoi. They killed three soldiers but lost 22 of their own men, the military statement said.
Adding to catalog of violence, gunmen wounded a provincial minister in the Darra Adam Khel tribal region just outside Peshawar. Three people were killed in the attack, but Mian Nisar Gul, NWFP minister for jails, was in a stable condition, according to a fellow minister who spoke with him in hospital.
AID CRUNCH
Pakistan's decision to opt for military action in Swat has been helped by a shift in public opinion. That support might ebb if the welfare of some 2.5 million people displaced by the conflict in the northwest is mishandled.
Nine aid agencies said on Thursday in London they would be forced to stop or cut back supplies of aid unless a funding crisis was resolved.
The United Nations has appealed for $543 million, but has received only $138 million so far.
The United Nations is heavily involved in relief efforts, and five U.N. workers, including two foreigners, were among those killed in the suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental hotel.
HEAVY BOMBING
In the tribal region of Orakzai, security forces also used artillery and warplanes to obliterate a militant compound, killing at least five people, but probably more, according to the the region's mayor.
"It's been heavy bombing and there must be many more casualties, both militants and civilians. We're trying to collect the numbers," mayor Gul Khitab said.
A pro-Taliban cleric, Maulvi Jameel, said several militants' positions and hideouts had been struck during the raid. He didn't have information about casualties.
Immediately to the southwest of Peshawar, militants had until a year ago little presence in Orakzai, one of the more developed tribal regions.
There have been clashes scattered across Swat this week, but the largest population centers and key roads have been cleared of Taliban, and the army has smashed the militants main bases and training camps in the mountains.
The military says more than 1,300 militants and 105 soldiers have been killed in Swat.
Some Taliban have fled through the passes to the Kalam valley in the north, and Upper Dir district, where the army has backed a tribal militia, or lashkar, that has turned on the insurgents.
Separatists in the southwest province of Baluchistan delivered a bloody reminder that the Taliban aren't Pakistan's only worry, claiming responsibility for a bomb blast on a train that killed one person and wounded 35 on Thursday.
(Additional reporting by Hasan Mehmood, Alamgir Bitani, and Zeeshan Haider; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
First off, round of applause for Jeremy Laurence for great editing. AP totally sucks, except on rare occasions, with their articles, so it's nice to know that Reuters at least cares enough to have an editor and to present stories with respectable English and grammar.
2nd... change is happening in Pakistan. Pak has grown a great big pair of balls and seems to be really hammering the Taliban. I was hoping they'd finally grow a pair, wasn't sure if they would, but they did. So here we go, the fight is really on now in Pak and the U.S. is eager to kill on the other side of the border within Afghanrugistan.
So, after... 2.. take away the 1... divide by... add... oh.. fucking way too long, there is actually a real effort now to get rid of the terrorists who started it all and seem to exist only to cause strife.
Well, I hope I'm not talking too soon. After all, Pak seems to like to call truces. Pak may very well fight the terrorists back to the border area, and then stop. That of course will give the terrorists time and experience to try something better next time.
Anyway, right now Pak looks like they'll finish the job, so to speak. If they want peace in their country, they'd better make sure the Taliban no longer has a safe haven within their border... else, all this will just either be repeated, or Pak will simply be defeated at a later date. But until either...
Go Pak Go!!!
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