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| India-Pakistan | ||
| US considers anti-Taliban strikes in SW Pakistan | ||
| 2009-03-18 | ||
President Barack Obama and his top aides are considering expanding covert operations against Taliban leaders in Pakistan to southwestern Baluchistan province, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Quetta, located some 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border with Afghanistan and with a population of about one million, is the capital of Baluchistan province. Up to now missile strikes launched by US drones against insurgents who carry out attacks in Afghanistan have been limited to Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, the Times reports. "It is fair to say that there is wide agreement to sustain and continue these covert programs," an unnamed senior US administration official told the newspaper. "One of the foundations on which the recommendations to the president will be based is that we've got to sustain the disruption of the safe havens." On the issue of Baluchistan however, top Obama advisers however are split. Some fear that such strikes could increase tensions with Pakistan, which said in late February it wanted to discuss ending controversial US drone attacks inside its territory. Mullah Muhammad Omar, who led the Taliban government ousted by the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, has operated with near impunity out of the region for years, along with many of his deputies, the newspaper said. Unlike the semi-autonomous tribal belt, Baluchistan -- which borders Iran and Afghanistan -- is under the authority of the central government. Baluchistan province has rich energy resources but is rife with regional insurgency and sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shiite Muslim extremists. Hundreds of people have died in insurgent unrest in the province since 2004, when rebels began demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from Baluchistan's natural resources. In February John Solecki, a US citizen who heads the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Quetta, was kidnapped in the city. A Baluch rebel group claims to be holding him. Thirty-five such strikes have killed more than 340 people since August 2008. Six have been blamed on unmanned US aircraft since Obama came to power, dashing Pakistani hopes that his administration would abandon the policy. The New York Times quoted administration officials as saying that Predator and Reaper drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas have been effective in killing nine of Al-Qaeda's top 20 leaders. The campaign was recently expanded to focus on Pakistan's most wanted militant, Baitullah Mehsud, as well as his fighters and training camps. Mehsud heads the much feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and is accused of plotting the 2007 assassination of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, the wife of President Asif Ali Zardari. | ||
| Posted by:ed |
| #2 So is that the "good" Taliban that Obama wants to talk to, or the "bad" Taliban that Obama wants to kill? |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-03-18 22:48 |
| #1 See also WAFF > US GENERAL: MILITANTS' SANCTUARIES IN PAKISTAN MUST BE ELIMINATED. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-03-18 19:07 |