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Pakistan planning South Waziristan offensive: US
The main focus is to strike at Baitullah Mehsud, whose insurgency poses a serious internal threat to Pakistan's govt.— WASHINGTON: US defence officials said Friday that Pakistan is planning a new assault into South Waziristan aimed at key al Qaida strongholds, a move tied to the Obama administration's broader strategy for the Afghanistan war. At the same time, one senior US official said, the United States will also be providing increased intelligence and surveillance support to the Pakistanis. That US official and several others spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss planned military operations that have not been announced. The main focus of the new Pakistani offensive, the US officials said, is to strike at Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, whose insurgency inside Pakistan poses a serious internal threat to the government. Mehsud has been linked to bombings on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and represents a key target for both countries. But South Waziristan is also considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. The region's high concentration of al-Qaida extremists and Taliban insurgents has made it a frequent target of US missiles fired from unmanned drone aircraft. Intelligence sharing between Washington and Islamabad has been increasing over the last eight months with Pakistan's change in government and its growing willingness to battle militants and terrorists within its borders. Top US and Pakistani military officials held a secret strategy session in August 2008 on an aircraft carrier off Pakistan to discuss the problem. Weeks later, a Pakistan government official said the two countries had agreed to a shared set of targets in lawless western Pakistan. The United States agreed to go after militant tribal leaders who threatened Pakistan's stability _among them Mehsud_ and Pakistan would target al Qaida operatives whom the United States considers its top threat. The US officials said the Pakistani operations would lead to military offensives along both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border stretching down along the Federally Administered Tribal Area. Officials offered no time frame for the new offensive, but said the initial phases have already begun. There have been persistent rumors in Pakistan about the planned offensive, but no official government announcement. After six weeks of major combat operations _ first in Buner and Upper Dir districts, then in Swat Valley _ the Pakistani Army appears to be redeploying forces into the area surrounding South Waziristan, said another official. And the officials said that while fighting is still raging in pockets of Swat, the looming move into Waziristan may have a better chance of success than previous efforts there.
‘The way
they're approaching the problem of Waziristan is a little bit
different than they approached it in the past,’ a senior official
said. ‘The operations that appear to be under way now would be the largest operations that have been undertaken in Waziristan,’ the official said. The central element of the US Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, the defence official said, is to have troops put pressure on the al-Qaida and Taliban militants believed to be operating out of havens there.—AP DAWN: Saturday, 13 Jun, 2009
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