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Pakistan Army launches Zarb e Azb(Sharp and Cutting) operation in North Waziristan

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  • Pakistan Army launches Zarb e Azb(Sharp and Cutting) operation in North Waziristan

    RAWALPINDI: The army has officially launched a highly anticipated operation in North Waziristan, according to an ISPR press release.
    “DG ISPR has said that on the directions of the Government, Armed forces of Pakistan have launched a comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan Agency. The operation has been named Zarb-e-Azb,” said the press release.

    The meaning of Zarb-e-Azb is sharp and cutting. It’s reportedly the sword used by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the battle of Badar.

    The statement went on to add that terrorists in N Waziristan had waged a war against the state of Pakistan and had been disrupting life in all its dimensions, stunting our economic growth and causing enormous loss of life and property. “They had also paralysed life within the agency and had perpetually terrorised the entire peace loving and patriotic local population,” the statement added.

    “Our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries. With the support of the entire nation, and in coordination with other state institutions and Law Enforcement Agencies, these enemies of the state will be denied space anywhere across the country. As always, armed forces of Pakistan will not hesitate in rendering any sacrifice for the motherland,” said the statement.

    Army launches Zarb-e-Azb (sharp and cutting) operation in North Waziristan – The Express Tribune

  • #2
    Jet bombings kill over 80 terrorists in North Waziristan: ISPR



    ISLAMABAD: Over 80 people were killed as Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets bombed hideouts of suspected militants in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan early on Sunday, Express News reported.
    “Today at about 0130 hours (2030 GMT), a number of terrorist hideouts in Dehgan, Datta Khel in North Waziristan were targeted by jet aircraft. The number of terrorists killed in early morning strikes has risen to 80, mostly Uzbeks,” a military statement said.
    However local security officials put the death toll far higher, saying that about 150 militants died in the air strikes.
    The air force also carried out shelling late Sunday morning in the Mirali area of North Waziristan.
    An Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release confirmed that terrorists linked to planning the attack on Karachi airport were present in the hideouts that were bombed. The mastermind behind the attack - Abu Abdur Rehman Almani - was among the dead, Express News reported.
    At least 37 people, including 10 terrorists, were killed in the all-night battle at Jinnah International Airport that had started on June 8. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) had claimed responsibility for the attack.
    The ISPR stated that mostly Uzbek foreigners were killed in the strikes. An ammunition dump was also destroyed, according to the press release.
    Terrorists of East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) were also allegedly killed in the bombings, Express News reported.
    “Up to 150 people were killed during the strikes early Sunday. These strikes were carried out based on confirmed reports about the presence of Uzbek and other militants in the area,” an intelligence official said.
    Another security official said that “the number of the killed people was even more than 150″.
    The Pakistan military has not confirmed the higher figure.
    Following the incident, the local political administration imposed a curfew in the area for an indefinite period.
    Previous bombings
    On Jun 10, aerial bombing in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency killed at least 25 militants.
    On May 23, gunship helicopter and jet planes bombed hideouts of suspected militants in North Waziristan, killing four and injuring three others.

    http://tribune.com.pk/story/722108/f...th-waziristan/
    Attached Files

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    • #3
      TTP extends olive branch after N Waziristan air strikes

      ISLAMABAD: As army air strikes intensified in North Waziristan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have offered an olive branch to the government, saying they are still open to ‘meaningful’ peace talks.
      “The government has constantly adopted a non-serious approach. This forced us to end [the] ceasefire and launch counter-attacks, which was our right and [an] obligation under Sharia,” said TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid. However, the spokesman said the Taliban are still ready for meaningful talks.
      He said statements from a senior member of the government’s negotiation team, Maj (retd) Aamir, have exposed the government’s real intentions. “Changes of the government’s team and their internal rifts have also had a negative impact on the process,” he said.
      The government did not release a single non-combatant prisoner and also avoided producing Taliban prisoners before the court, Shahid said.
      “The TTP was trapped under the pretext of dialogue. A secret operation code-named ‘root out’ was launched against the Mujahideen and their sympathisers across the country, and over 500 innocent people including some Taliban members were arrested,” the TTP spokesperson alleged.
      Shahid also dismissed the army’s claims of casualties caused by air strikes in North Waziristan. He said the fighter jets have once again “targeted innocent people” in North Waziristan, and have killed and injured hundreds of people in overnight air strikes.
      “We will launch revenge attacks,” Shahid said Sunday, hours after fighter jets rained bombs on what the army claimed were “hideouts of terrorists” in the Datta Khel area.
      A military statement said a number of “terrorist’s hideouts in Degan, Datta Khel in North Waziristan Agency, were targeted by jet aircrafts.”
      There were also confirmed reports of the presence of foreign and local terrorists in these hideouts, some linked to the planning of the Karachi airport attack.
      The military said over 50 “terrorists, mostly Uzbek foreigners” were killed in the strikes and an ammunition dump has also been destroyed.
      The TTP spokesperson said the PML-N and the ‘Punjab establishment’ have planned to launch a full-scale war in the near future.
      Shahid said the airstrikes are alienating the people of the tribal region as around 50,000 people have migrated to Afghanistan, and such a situation presents a disastrous situation for the future of Pakistan.
      The government began negotiations with the TTP through intermediaries in February, with a ceasefire beginning March 1 but breaking down a month later.
      Eight killed in fresh infighting
      Eight militants were killed Sunday in the latest clashes between the Pakistani Taliban and a breakaway faction in North Waziristan on Sunday, officials said.
      The fighting erupted in the Wacha Mela area 65 kilometres west of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan tribal district.
      A total of 106 militants have been killed since supporters of commander Khalid Mehsud, alias Khan Said Sajna, began battling followers of the slain former Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in April.
      Khalid Mehsud’s group last month split from the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a move which analysts described as a victory for the Pakistani military’s strategy of sowing divisions between insurgent factions.
      The latest fighting left eight militants dead and three wounded, a local intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
      “Six of the dead militants belonged to the Hakimullah group,” he said.
      Another security official and a militant source confirmed the fighting and casualties.
      The powerful Mehsud faction parted ways with the TTP last month after its senior leader, Azam Tariq, blamed the TTP for “falling in the hands of conspirators and indulging in burglaries and extortion.”
      The Taliban under Maulvi Fazalullah had been silent over the division for nearly three weeks and TTP spokesperson briefly touched upon what is widely believed as a serious development for the group.

      TTP extends olive branch after N Waziristan air strikes – The Express Tribune

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      • #4
        North Waziristan empties out as foreign fighters flee

        MIRAMSHAH: Some of the world's most feared militants are quietly slipping away from the North Waziristan tribal region in anticipation of a long-rumoured military operation, raising questions about the effectiveness of such intervention.

        The exodus from the mountainous district on the Afghan border began in late May following air strikes by the Pakistani military, locals said.

        But it has been hastened by the Taliban's all-night siege of Karachi airport this week, which all but destroyed a tentative peace process.

        On Wednesday night two US drone strikes hit the region killing at least 16 in the first such attack this year, fueling suspicion of coordination between the two countries, with Islamabad's patience for talks seemingly exhausted.

        But as pressure builds for a fuller response to the airport assault, which was joined by militants from Uzbekistan, residents and officials in North Waziristan's main town of Miramshah said the majority of foreign and local fighters had already left.

        “Most of them have gone deep into the mountains towards the Afghan border,” a senior security official said.

        The locals said militant groups were also seen escaping from villages that are a known hub of the dreaded Haqqani network, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known for its spectacular attacks against US forces in Afghanistan.

        Rumours of a ground offensive in North Waziristan, one of seven tribal regions along the border, have abounded for years.

        But authorities have held back from a final push — possibly fearing the blow-back in Pakistan's major cities such as Karachi, where 38 people including 10 militants were killed at the airport.

        However, the sheer numbers of people leaving — some 60,000, according to official estimates, since late May — suggest that this time might be different.


        Empty bazaars
        Residents saw foreign militants leaving the Machis Camp and Dattakhel village near Miramshah, as well as the villages of Musaki, Hurmaz, Hessokhel and Api.

        The fighters included Chechens, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Tajiks and Uighurs, residents and officials said.

        They arrived during the early 2000s, lured by the fiery rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and the chance to fight “infidel” forces in Afghanistan.

        Married into the local population, some have erected mud houses in small villages among the area's rugged mountains.

        Others “have rented houses and rooms here but they have now left towards the Afghan border”, a grocery shop owner in Miramshah bazaar said.

        Another resident in Miramshah estimated that more than 80 per cent of local and foreign fighters have left North Waziristan.

        The migrations began on May 22 when Pakistani F-16s pounded suspected targets, killing at least 75 according to the military.

        Government representatives also began holding talks two weeks ago with a grand Jira, or council of elders, warning them to hand over foreigners in the area or face severe consequences.

        “Tribesmen are against war, they want to solve this conflict with talks and according to tribal traditions and that's why we have formed a peace Jirga,” Jirga chief Sher Mohammed said.

        Residents said some Jirga members last week made announcements from mosque loudspeakers in several villages asking foreign fighters to leave the area.

        They also made those under their command hoist Pakistani flags to demonstrate their loyalty and ward off aerial attacks.

        Deliberate strategy?
        Most areas along the border are not well demarcated, which allows militants to escape into Afghanistan.

        “They have moved towards Shawal and Birmal,” an intelligence official said, referring to remote villages on the Afghan border.

        A second security official said: “It is good that they [fighters] are leaving. We hope that tribesmen will not allow them to come and settle here again.

        “In case of any military operation, we will face less resistance,” he added.

        Residents said they have seen less activity of the feared Haqqani fighters in recent weeks. “They are also disappearing, probably they have gone to Khost, Paktia or Paktika,” one resident in Miramshah said, naming Afghan border provinces.

        Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst and long-time observer of the tribal areas, said the Jirga and other threats of full-scale action in North Waziristan appeared to be a deliberate strategy on Pakistan's part.

        “This was probably done with a clear intent and that intent was to let them cross the border if they like.

        “As long they cross the border — why should it be Pakistan's headache? It's then the headache of Afghan and coalition forces,” he said, adding that such movement had occurred in the past when Islamabad had launched operations in other parts of the tribal areas and in Swat Valley. This is why it was so difficult to engage militants in a fight in the area, as they could eventually return.

        “They keep going backwards and forwards — they can't plug the entire border whether it's Pakistani militants or foreign militants. “

        North Waziristan empties out as foreign fighters flee - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

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        • #5
          Taliban Fighters Warn Foreign Investors to Leave Pakistan
          June 16, 2014

          Pakistan’s military began a full-scale operation in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan, prompting insurgents to warn foreign investors, airlines and multinational companies to leave the country. “We’re in a state of war,” Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said in a statement yesterday. “Foreign investors, airlines, and multinational companies should cut off business with Pakistan immediately and leave the country or else they will be responsible for their damage themselves.”
          I would imagine kidnappings of foreigners will also be in the brew.
          sigpic

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Minskaya View Post
            I would imagine kidnappings of foreigners will also be in the brew.
            TTP's main target could be the 10.000+ Chinese working in KPK and GB provinces. Other than that there are not many foreigners in areas.

            Govt has already placed Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar International Airports under military control. Security is being increased in major cities as well.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Neo View Post
              Govt has already placed Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar International Airports under military control. Security is being increased in major cities as well.
              I hope they are also increasing security at schools for girls.
              sigpic

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              • #8
                Kabul asked not to shelter fleeing NWA tribesmen

                PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan on Monday asked the Afghan government not to provide shelter for the North Waziristan people fleeing their homes due to the uncertain security situation.

                Addressing a news conference at the Governor’s House here, Sardar Mahtab said the Afghan government should refrain from encouraging Pakistani tribesmen to take shelter on its soil and that Islamabad had already taken up the matter with Kabul through the Foreign Office.

                “This is inappropriate. The Afghan government should not offer refuge and incentives to the dislocated people on its territory,” he said while replying to a question about the movement of the people from North Waziristan to Afghanistan.

                The governor said the Afghan government was also offering cash assistance to tribal people but its repercussions would be very severe for the entire region as Pakistan did not want to interfere in Afghanistan’s domestic affairs.

                He said security forces had sealed checkposts in Ghulam Khan area and other frequented routes along the Afghan border to stop miscreants, especially foreign militants, from entering Afghanistan from North Waziristan.

                Governor says action targeted, not to last long
                “This is not humanly possible to seal the entire border and some people might have slipped away before the military action began in North Waziristan,” he said.

                The Afghan government has said over 6,000 people of North Waziristan have reached Khost province due to clashes between Pakistani security forces and the Taliban and that such people have been provided with relief assistance.

                Last week, spokesman for the Khost governor Mubariz Zadran had told Dawn that the Afghan government was ready to welcome Pakistani tribesmen by providing them with shelter on humanitarian ground.

                Talking about the ongoing military operation, Zarb-i-Azeb, the governor said the army action would be targeted and would be completed in a short time to avoid and minimise the suffering of the affected people.

                He said the large-scale displacement was possible from Waziristan, which had been declared a conflict zone.

                “Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Khalid Rabbani has assured me that security forces will try to ensure the minimum possible collateral damage,” he said.

                Sardar Mahtab said the authorities would not repeat what had happened during some previous military operations, where civilians suffered from huge damages to life and property.

                He said militants had destroyed the tribal system and were using civilians as a human shield.

                The governor said local tribesmen were sick of the Waziristan situation and therefore, they wanted the military to take action against miscreants.

                He said the North Waziristan political administration was likely to relax curfew for three days from today (Tuesday) for the evacuation of civilians from the area as hundreds of thousands of people were stranded there due to the four days long curfew.“I understand the misery of displaced population but there’s no option with the government but to launch military action against militants,” he said, adding that the government had tried its best to resolve the issue through dialogue.

                Sardar Mahtab said the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) had begun registration of the internally displaced persons and around 50,000 people had been registered so far.

                He said Lt-Gen Rabbani and FDMA director general visited Bannu on Monday to examine relief operations, including establishment of camps for fresh IDPs.

                The governor said health teams had been mobilised in the area to vaccinate children, who were earlier stopped from taking polio drops.

                He said relief agencies had been given funds to provide the maximum relief to IDPs, who were not coming to tents and taking shelter with host families.

                Sardar Mahtab said IDPs would be accommodated in the buildings of government schools.

                Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2014

                Comment


                • #9
                  NE,

                  I don't get it. Is Pakistan actually asking Kabul to deny entrance to refugees?
                  No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

                  To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by notorious_eagle View Post
                    [ATTACH]37154[/ATTACH]

                    ISLAMABAD: Over 80 people were killed as Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets bombed hideouts of suspected militants in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan early on Sunday, Express News reported.
                    I saw some news clippings that showed fighters that looked like the JF-17s.

                    However, using fighters in COIN is counter productive, unless the government does not care for the people.
                    From news reports it appears that the Pak army intends to use air power against the Taliban.

                    I dont want to sound cynical, but the GHQ in Rawalpindi has lost the plot.

                    Cheers!...on the rocks!!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The impression I get is that from the PAs point of view these areas were anyway badlands where the government's writ never held sway.
                      So to them its pest control, bomb them down into submission, mount a few punitive expeditions and call it a day.
                      For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by lemontree View Post
                        I saw some news clippings that showed fighters that looked like the JF-17s.

                        However, using fighters in COIN is counter productive, unless the government does not care for the people.
                        From news reports it appears that the Pak army intends to use air power against the Taliban.

                        I dont want to sound cynical, but the GHQ in Rawalpindi has lost the plot.
                        I remember news clippings about air strikes, gunship attacks, tanks and even artillery during some of the past PA operations against the Taliban with pious Arabic names. The usual tactic seemed to be to tell people to evacuate a village being used as a hiding place by the Taliban and then flatten it. No reason for it to be different this time.
                        Last edited by Firestorm; 17 Jun 14,, 18:52.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          The airpower is being used to reduce the ttp's infrastructure in NWA. Most of the strikes being carried out now & in previous months are based on on the ground humint & in some cases target marking by forward operating SSW detachments. Mostly Mk.82 sized LGB's are being used with GBU.10's being used for hardened structures. Before the op started a relatively large heliborne force was dropped in between the Durand Line & NWA border crossings, alongside smaller forces around known TTP & Uzbek strong holds. The main force for the op is the 7th Infantry Div with attached Army Aviation assets. The settled areas are not being attacked. The operation is of a Cordon, Corral, eliminate & hold nature. It will take time & Pak Army has greatly modified its tactics for this op.
                          The air assets from PAF are F-16s of all 4 sqdrns, ROSE II & III Mirages & JF-17s. Also to my 3 o clock neighbors don't disparage our tactics before you've had some time to see the results. Its been only 2 days.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Doktor View Post
                            NE,

                            I don't get it. Is Pakistan actually asking Kabul to deny entrance to refugees?
                            They are asking them to deny entrance to militants escaping the operation. The Government has also asked the Afghan Government to go after TTP's strongholds in Kunar and Nuristan.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by lemontree View Post
                              I saw some news clippings that showed fighters that looked like the JF-17s.

                              However, using fighters in COIN is counter productive, unless the government does not care for the people.
                              From news reports it appears that the Pak army intends to use air power against the Taliban.
                              In regards to the use of Air Power, Umairch has answered it. Air Power has largely been used to attack TTP Strongholds largely consisting of bunkers and hardened shelters.

                              Originally posted by lemontree View Post
                              I dont want to sound cynical, but the GHQ in Rawalpindi has lost the plot.
                              Lets wait and see how the Operation unfolds, its been less than 2 days. The Operation is being led by a very competent Officer, i have every confidence in his judgement.

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