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| Afghanistan |
| US allowed joint operation in tribal areas |
| 2002-04-25 |
| American advisers have been granted permission to accompany Pakistani troops into tribal areas of Pakistan during raids on suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda hideouts, senior officials were quoted as saying by the New York Times. Heard about this on Fox. They said our guys would be CIA, rather than Special Forces. The agreement appears to clear the way for American help in Pakistani operations in a largely lawless region near the Afghan border where hundreds of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to have taken refuge, the paper said. No more pretending to be Cambodia? The report said that a Bush administration official acknowledged that "joint operations are being discussed." But American officials declined to talk about details. It was unclear whether the American advisers would include CIA agents, who have played a prominent role in operations inside Afghanistan. If they're smart, they'll never give details. If they're really smart, this'll be the last time we hear about this until they actually get something, if then. The agreement was struck after the seizure of documents and computer disks from a house inhabited by Abu Zubaydah, a senior leader of Al Qaeda arrested on March 27 during a raid in Faisalabad. The paper said "according to Pakistani officials, the information seized in the raid provided evidence of an effort by Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters to regroup in the mountains along the border, using the tribal areas as a haven to avoid attack by American forces." Got the goods on them so tight even Qureshi couldn't wiggle out of it, huh? The information seized in the raid is not specific enough to guide individual operations, the Pakistani officials said. They said the information narrowed the area of Al Qaeda and Taliban activity to Nangarhar, Paktia and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan, and to the Pakistani tribal agencies of North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Mohmand and Bajaur. In other words, where we knew it was before we got the nail through it. The prospect of joint Pakistani-American raids in the tribal areas suggests the possibility of a new two-pronged operation to squeeze remaining pockets of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters from both sides of the border, the Times said. But somehow I can't see that happening. The Paks'll have to wash their hair that day or something. Either that, or it'll involve a lot of troops poking through the bushes while the locals stand around snickering because all the Bad Guys left last week after the e-mail arrived. The paper observed that Pakistani leaders are worried about provoking a backlash against the presence of Americans in the region, where tribes operate largely beyond the authority of the central government. I keep coming back to the same point: When's it going to be their turn to worry about our tetchy tempers? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 FoxNews reports US Special Forces are engaged in joint ops with the Paks right now. Wonder if they'll find anyone, or if they've skipped to somewhere else? |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-04-25 21:41:45 |