I wish them success.
Pakistan plans military operation in North Waziristan, targeting extremist groups - The Washington Post
Pakistanis leaving North Waziristan on Tues, Feb 25, 2014.
Pakistan plans military operation in North Waziristan, targeting extremist groups - The Washington Post
Pakistanis leaving North Waziristan on Tues, Feb 25, 2014.
Pakistan plans military operation in North Waziristan, targeting extremist groups
By Karen DeYoung, Tuesday, February 25, 9:19 AM
The Pakistani government is on the verge of launching a major military offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region following a series of brutal Taliban attacks in recent weeks and the apparent failure of peace talks with the militants, according to a senior Pakistani official.
“It could be any day,” said the official, who added that military plans have been shared with top U.S. officials who have long urged an offensive.
Planning for the operation comes amid a Pakistan-requested pause in U.S. drone strikes now entering its third month — the longest period without an attack in more than two years — and a series of high-level U.S.-Pakistan meetings.
Pakistan’s defense secretary, Asif Yasin Malik, is currently heading a delegation of security officials in Washington. CIA Director John Brennan quietly visited Pakistan last week, days after Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the U.S. Central Command, held meetings at military headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s national security adviser said Cabinet-level consultations on the military option would take place this week. “Dialogue with the Taliban has derailed and the writ of the state will be established in the region,” Sartaj Aziz told reporters Monday in Islamabad.
With 150,000 troops already based in the tribal regions, the Pakistani official said the government is prepared to begin a full-fledged clearing operation. “We really don’t have to start from scratch,” the official said.
The official said that an official evacuation had not yet begun, but noted that tens of thousands of residents, who he said were “spooked” by reports of imminent government attack, had already left on their own.
U.S. officials, while hailing the current level of cooperation and saying they are encouraged by Pakistan’s apparent determination, noted that they have been frequently disappointed in the past. “We’ll believe it when we see it,” said one U.S. official, who like other U.S. and Pakistan officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic contacts and military plans.
“We’re not doing it for their happiness,” said the senior Pakistani official of the United States’ urging. Instead, he said, the execution last week of 23 Pakistani soldiers held by the Pakistani Taliban since 2010, along with a series of recent attacks, including one that killed 19 at a Karachi police station, have turned public opinion against the militants and the already sputtering peace talks. That has opened new political space for military action.
In statements Monday, the Pakistan People’s Party, the official parliamentary opposition, said it supported a military offensive. Imran Khan, head of the opposition Movement for Justice party, indicated that military action was now inevitable. “Talks would have still been a better option,” he said, but he called on the government now to “take political ownership of any military operation,” and fully inform the nation.
Khan, whose northwest power base borders the tribal regions and who has been harshly critical of both Sharif and the United States in the past, called for the government to begin evacuating civilians from North Waziristan before starting a bombardment of the area, as it did prior to major military offensives in the Swat region in 2009, and in South Waziristan in 2010.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known by its initials TTP, is allied with but separate from the Afghan Taliban fighting against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Elements of both, along with the Afghan Haqqani network and remnants of al-Qaeda’s core leadership, are located in North Waziristan.
The TTP’s stated goal is to overthrow the Pakistani government and install an Islamic state based on religious law.
Peace talks were first proposed early last fall by Sharif, who took office in June after the first democratic transition in Pakistani history. Those talks were cancelled when a U.S. drone strike in November killed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud. The action led to one of the frequent downturns in U.S.-Pakistani relations, as Sharif’s government accused the Obama administration of trying to undermine negotiations.
In late December, as it prepared to relaunch the talks, the government asked the administration to hold off on further drone attacks and made clear that it was prepared to begin a military offensive if negotiations did not succeed.
The senior Pakistani official cautioned that the government has not yet formally declared the talks a failure, and said that “it’s politically important for the government to take this to its logical conclusion.” At least one round had taken place, with no dis*cern*ible results, when the execution of the Pakistani soldiers took place. In recent days, the government has carried out several retaliatory airstrikes that it says have killed dozens of militants in North Waziristan.
The 2010 South Waziristan offensive began with air bombardment, followed by waves of ground troops, although the official cautioned that the terrain and militant locations in North Waziristan are somewhat different.
The official said that government targeting would “not discriminate” among TTP, Haqqani and other groups in North Waziristan, including al-Qaeda.
U.S. officials have long attributed Pakistani reluctance to attack there to ties between Pakistani intelligence and Afghan groups, such as the Haqqani network, and Pakistan’s desire to keep its options open in Afghanistan, should U.S. efforts there fail and the Afghan Taliban return to power.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied those charges, and said it would take action that suited its own strategic priorities.
Even as the United States and Afghanistan have accused Pakistan of failing to prevent Afghan and al-Qaeda militants from crossing the border, Pakistan has charged U.S. and Afghan forces with failing to go after TTP forces, many of whom fled into Afghanistan during previous Pakistani offensives.
Both the United States and Pakistan have touted the advantages of a hammer-and-anvil strategy, with coordinated operations along the border to stop fleeing militants in both directions. But as their relationship has ebbed and flowed over the years, that level of cooperation has never come to pass.
Now, with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan well underway, the United States no longer has the military resources in eastern Afghanistan to adequately patrol the border, the senior Pakistani official said.
© The Washington Post Company
By Karen DeYoung, Tuesday, February 25, 9:19 AM
The Pakistani government is on the verge of launching a major military offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region following a series of brutal Taliban attacks in recent weeks and the apparent failure of peace talks with the militants, according to a senior Pakistani official.
“It could be any day,” said the official, who added that military plans have been shared with top U.S. officials who have long urged an offensive.
Planning for the operation comes amid a Pakistan-requested pause in U.S. drone strikes now entering its third month — the longest period without an attack in more than two years — and a series of high-level U.S.-Pakistan meetings.
Pakistan’s defense secretary, Asif Yasin Malik, is currently heading a delegation of security officials in Washington. CIA Director John Brennan quietly visited Pakistan last week, days after Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the U.S. Central Command, held meetings at military headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s national security adviser said Cabinet-level consultations on the military option would take place this week. “Dialogue with the Taliban has derailed and the writ of the state will be established in the region,” Sartaj Aziz told reporters Monday in Islamabad.
With 150,000 troops already based in the tribal regions, the Pakistani official said the government is prepared to begin a full-fledged clearing operation. “We really don’t have to start from scratch,” the official said.
The official said that an official evacuation had not yet begun, but noted that tens of thousands of residents, who he said were “spooked” by reports of imminent government attack, had already left on their own.
U.S. officials, while hailing the current level of cooperation and saying they are encouraged by Pakistan’s apparent determination, noted that they have been frequently disappointed in the past. “We’ll believe it when we see it,” said one U.S. official, who like other U.S. and Pakistan officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic contacts and military plans.
“We’re not doing it for their happiness,” said the senior Pakistani official of the United States’ urging. Instead, he said, the execution last week of 23 Pakistani soldiers held by the Pakistani Taliban since 2010, along with a series of recent attacks, including one that killed 19 at a Karachi police station, have turned public opinion against the militants and the already sputtering peace talks. That has opened new political space for military action.
In statements Monday, the Pakistan People’s Party, the official parliamentary opposition, said it supported a military offensive. Imran Khan, head of the opposition Movement for Justice party, indicated that military action was now inevitable. “Talks would have still been a better option,” he said, but he called on the government now to “take political ownership of any military operation,” and fully inform the nation.
Khan, whose northwest power base borders the tribal regions and who has been harshly critical of both Sharif and the United States in the past, called for the government to begin evacuating civilians from North Waziristan before starting a bombardment of the area, as it did prior to major military offensives in the Swat region in 2009, and in South Waziristan in 2010.
The Pakistani Taliban, also known by its initials TTP, is allied with but separate from the Afghan Taliban fighting against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Elements of both, along with the Afghan Haqqani network and remnants of al-Qaeda’s core leadership, are located in North Waziristan.
The TTP’s stated goal is to overthrow the Pakistani government and install an Islamic state based on religious law.
Peace talks were first proposed early last fall by Sharif, who took office in June after the first democratic transition in Pakistani history. Those talks were cancelled when a U.S. drone strike in November killed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud. The action led to one of the frequent downturns in U.S.-Pakistani relations, as Sharif’s government accused the Obama administration of trying to undermine negotiations.
In late December, as it prepared to relaunch the talks, the government asked the administration to hold off on further drone attacks and made clear that it was prepared to begin a military offensive if negotiations did not succeed.
The senior Pakistani official cautioned that the government has not yet formally declared the talks a failure, and said that “it’s politically important for the government to take this to its logical conclusion.” At least one round had taken place, with no dis*cern*ible results, when the execution of the Pakistani soldiers took place. In recent days, the government has carried out several retaliatory airstrikes that it says have killed dozens of militants in North Waziristan.
The 2010 South Waziristan offensive began with air bombardment, followed by waves of ground troops, although the official cautioned that the terrain and militant locations in North Waziristan are somewhat different.
The official said that government targeting would “not discriminate” among TTP, Haqqani and other groups in North Waziristan, including al-Qaeda.
U.S. officials have long attributed Pakistani reluctance to attack there to ties between Pakistani intelligence and Afghan groups, such as the Haqqani network, and Pakistan’s desire to keep its options open in Afghanistan, should U.S. efforts there fail and the Afghan Taliban return to power.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied those charges, and said it would take action that suited its own strategic priorities.
Even as the United States and Afghanistan have accused Pakistan of failing to prevent Afghan and al-Qaeda militants from crossing the border, Pakistan has charged U.S. and Afghan forces with failing to go after TTP forces, many of whom fled into Afghanistan during previous Pakistani offensives.
Both the United States and Pakistan have touted the advantages of a hammer-and-anvil strategy, with coordinated operations along the border to stop fleeing militants in both directions. But as their relationship has ebbed and flowed over the years, that level of cooperation has never come to pass.
Now, with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan well underway, the United States no longer has the military resources in eastern Afghanistan to adequately patrol the border, the senior Pakistani official said.
© The Washington Post Company
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