[DAWN] DERA KHAN: A US drone strike killed at least 15 snuffies associated with the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in Afghanistan's Gomal district on Wednesday, intelligence officials said on Friday, as part of an intensifying drone campaign against Talibs in Afghanistan.Three intelligence officials confirmed Wednesday's strike in an area bordering the South Wazoo region in Pakistain.
"Fifteen dead bodies of killed snuffies will be shifted soon to their native areas in Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
," one of the officials said.
They confirmed that the 15 forces of Evil belonged to the Gandapur faction of the TTP led by Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
, who grabbed credit for the massacre of more than 130 pupils at the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
last December.
Tracking of drone strikes in Afghanistan is patchy -- many of them take place in remote regions and are not reported -- but Taliban capos say that fighters there have been increasingly targeted since late last year.
| This is a good thing. |
Afghanistan's Caped President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
made closer ties with Pakistain a priority when he took office last year, hoping Islamabad could push Afghan Taliban leaders to the negotiating table to end Afghanistan's long war.
The relationship appeared to yield fruit in July with groundbreaking official peace talks with the Death Eaters.
But after confirmation of the death of the group's founder Mullah Omar
... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title
Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality...
, the process was suspended and the Taliban launched a wave of attacks in Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title
Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
, killing more than 50 people and souring relations between Pakistain and Afghanistan.