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| India-Pakistan |
| Drones push Taliban from NWA |
| 2010-11-07 |
| [Pak Daily Times] A US campaign of drone strikes in Pakistain is driving some beturbanned goons from their key haven of North Wazoo into other tribal districts, where they are aggressively laying the groundwork for a new base of operations, The Wall Street Journal reported Pak officials as saying, on Friday. The beturbanned goons are fleeing into regions where the Pakistain Army is already deployed in large numbers and is in a position to fight. North Wazoo has become a nerve centre of al Qaeda, Taliban and allies in the Haqqani network, from where they stage attacks on troops in Afghanistan. The CIA's drone campaign in the Tribal Areas has begun to push beturbanned goons north out of North Wazoo into other semiautonomous tribal regions, Kurram and Orakzai, the newspaper quoted Pak political and military officials and local tribal leaders. "They've dispersed from the south (of the tribal regions) all over," said an ISI official. The Taliban don't appear to be abandoning their North Wazoo base, and it is unclear how many forces they intend to shift -- or if they are simply making contingency plans, the newspaper said. An earlier Pak offensive into South Wazoo in 2009 pushed many beturbanned goons north to North Wazoo. US officials say that beturbanned goons have been known to move among Tribal Areas, but that they were unaware of any large-scale movements out of North Wazoo in response to the recent drone strikes. Pakistain has up till now resisted US pressure to launch a new major offensive in North Wazoo, arguing its army is stretched thin and doesn't yet have control of neighbouring tribal agencies. It says a large-scale operation in North Wazoo will just push beturbanned goons into other areas and prompt retaliatory strikes in Pak cities. The CIA, meanwhile, has ramped up dronezaps. The US has not targeted Kurram with a large number of strikes, according to the New America Foundation think tank, which counts only three attacks there in the past two years. The Mighty Pak Army has been on the offensive in Kurram and Orakzai, but gains there have looked fragile. The army has said it is moving to reassert control in the two tribal agencies, but that it will take time. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 The beturbanned goons are fleeing into regions where the Pakistain Army is already deployed in large numbers and is in a position to fight Says it all how they feel safe with the Pak army! |
| Posted by: Paul D 2010-11-07 17:41 |