..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
in mid-July to flush out Taliban
"Preliminary preparations for the final push have started, which will begin next month," a senior military official told Dawn during a background briefing on the eve of the first anniversary of the commencement of Zarb-e-Azb.
The final drive will be in south of Dattakhel towards the border through the forested and mountainous Shawal Valley.
A large number of snuffies fleeing the operation in other parts of North
Wazoo are believed to have taken refuge in Shawal Valley, which is considered to be an Al Qaeda sanctuary and a stronghold of Gul Bahadur, a warlord once considered pro-government.Shawal has also been the focus of US drone attacks this year with seven of the nine strikes hitting targets in the valley in which at least 43 suspected snuffies were killed.
"Operation ZeA moves to last few pockets close to Pak-Afghan border," military front man Maj Gen Asim Bajwa, meanwhile, said in a twitter posting.
At the same time, in Khyber Agency
, which the army claims has been mostly cleared through Operations Khyber I and II, troops would be clearing "a remaining small pocket," abutting on Orakzai Agency... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
, besides "consolidating their earlier gains".