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NATO massing forces on Pak Border
HT to Gateway Pundit! I'm doing the "believe it when I see it" thing
  • Villagers and officials say hundreds of coalition troops, tanks and APCs airlifted to border area
  • ISPR spokesman says media creating 'unnecessary hype' about troop movement
  • Pakistan Army deployed along border placed on high alert
  • Taliban spokesman says proximity makes it easier to kill more US soldiers
    heh...up close and personal death to Taliwhackers
    By Haji Mujtaba
    MIRANSHAH: A build up of Western coalition forces on the Afghan border spread alarm among villagers in North Waziristan on Tuesday, as residents and officials said that the Pakistan Army was gearing up for "any eventuality".
    "prepare to flee"
    If "any eventuality" includes war with the U.S. then it's time for the Paks to take a deep breath and count to 10. They've never won a war. We've won several. But I suspect this is more a case of whipping up the rubes and viewing with alarm than an actual push into North Wazoo.
    Villagers and officials, requesting anonymity, said that hundreds of coalition troops had been airlifted to a border area near the Lawara village. "The coalition troops have started to strengthen their positions after setting up camp in the border areas adjacent to the Pak-Afghan border and US helicopters have been spotted hovering over target areas as support," officials said.
    and psyops
    Reports from Afghanistan have said that helicopters have been transporting tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to Sarobagh and other landing strips in the Khost province, which neighbours the Tribal Areas. A villager said he could clearly see the troops.
    "Yeah! I seen 'em! They wuz big 'uns, too!"
    "They were brought by helicopters. They are at the zero point," Akmal Khan, a resident of Lawara, told Reuters, referring to the disputed international boundary. The deployment is near Camp Tillman, a forward operating base for US forces.
    Camp Tillman, huh?
    Unnecessary: Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Athar Abbas played down concerns by saying it was probably a routine movement and the media had created "unnecessary hype".
    Sure. We often move large amounts of men and materiel to remote Afghan villages.
    According to APP, he told Dawn News that the movements were restricted to within Afghan territory and were in preparation for an exercise or operation there. "We closely monitor all such moves so nothing occurs too close to the border. Certainly, we have co-ordination and communication with each other," he added.
    "We're on top of it, really! Why, right now I'm headed off to my office in Lahore to coordinate the coverage!"
    High alert: However, officials told Daily Times that the Pakistan Army deployed along the Pak-Afghan border has been placed on high alert in case of any infiltration.
    "getcher curly-toed track shoes on, boyz"
    A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said there was no question of entering Pakistan. "Our mandate stops at the border," spokesman Captain Mike Finney said. There was some "extra activity" on the border with troops searching for surviving insurgents after Sunday's attack that killed nine US troops, he told AFP.

    Welcome: Meanwhile, Bajaur Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar welcomed the build up on the border as a chance to kill more Americans. "It's a gift that they're coming here on our land and making it easy for us to kill our enemies, the enemies of Muslims," he told Reuters.
    Of course, Maulvi won't be anywhere near the killing, and would report thousands of Americans dead regardless, but I think the Talibs will get their chances at doe-eyed sheep virgins
    In a separate statement to The Associated Press, he criticised a statement by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani that had acknowledged the presence of foreign fighters in the Tribal Areas. "We will consider Prime Minister Gilani our enemy if the NATO or Pakistani security forces attack us after his baseless claim," he said.

    The new government has promised to do whatever it can to secure the border with Afghanistan.
    Short of hunting down Baitullah Mehsud and killing him or tossing Maulvi Omar into the clink for 180 years.
    However, a series of incidents along the border, including drone aircraft missile attacks, have fueled fears that the US military may be moving to a more offensive strategy in Pakistani territory.
    Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-16
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    http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=244362