Islamic militants overrun Pakistani fort

[kilekaldar]

Islamic militants overrun Pakistani fort

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080116/pakistan_military_080116/20080116?hub=World

Updated Wed. Jan. 16 2008 11:12 PM ET

The Associated Press

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- In an embarrassing battlefield defeat for Pakistan's army, Islamic extremists attacked and seized a small fort near the Afghan border, leaving at least 27 soldiers dead or missing.

The militants did not gain significant ground, but they did further erode confidence in the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the frontier area where the Taliban and al Qaeda flourish.

Attacks on security forces are rising in the volatile tribal region, and Pakistan is reeling from a series of suicide attacks that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and hundreds more, chipping away at President Pervez Musharraf's prestige before Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

"The militants are now challenging the army openly. They have become very bold and are consolidating their positions," Talat Masood, a retired general who is now a political analyst, said after Tuesday night's attack on Sararogha Fort.

The insurgents who seized the post were said to be followers of Baitullah Mehsud, an Islamic hard-liner who since December has been sole leader of an umbrella group of Taliban sympathizers and who is also thought to have links to al Qaeda.

Musharraf has blamed Mehsud's movement, Tehrik-e-Taliban, for 19 suicide attacks that killed more than 450 people over the last three months. Mehsud, labeled enemy No. 1 by the government, also masterminded the brazen capture of 213 Pakistani soldiers last August.

Fighters of the pro-Taliban groups he leads have terrorized Pakistan's northwest, killing hundreds of soldiers, hunting down politicians, beheading women and burning schools that teach girls anything more than religion.

In the latest battle, insurgents launched a surprise attack on Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan and chased off its small garrison from the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary force formed of men from the area.

"About 200 militants charged the fort from four sides," the army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said. "They broke through the fort's wall with rockets."

Fifteen of the 42 soldiers manning the fort reached safety in Jandola, an army base about 10 miles south of the British colonial-era fort. Seven others were known dead and 20 were missing, Abbas said.

The military claimed the defenders killed 50 militants before being overwhelmed. A spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban said that only two of its fighters died and that 16 soldiers were killed and 24 others captured, half of them wounded.

There was no way to verify casualty numbers. Both sides have long accused each other of exaggerating such figures.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Muhammad Umer, warned the government to release Taliban prisoners and stop military operations in the frontier region or face militant attacks across Pakistan.

"Attacks will continue not only in the tribal areas, but we will target the government everywhere in the country," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said militants had destroyed the fort with explosives.

Sararogha Fort is one of four such posts in the Mehsud tribal region, where Baitullah Mehsud is based and has thousands of armed supporters.

On Sunday, the military said its troops repelled a similar attack last week on another fort, at Lhada, and killed 40 to 50 insurgents. On Monday, militants ambushed an army convoy in the same area, touching off a firefight that the military said killed 30 insurgents and Tehrik-i-Taliban said resulted only in some of its fighters being wounded.

Musharraf first deployed the army in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions along the frontier in late 2001 to chase down al Qaeda militants fleeing the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers are now in the area, supported by heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter gunships, but they have had little success in stopping militants from infiltrating into Afghanistan or in quelling Pakistan's own worsening Islamic insurgency.

Government tactics have vacillated between use of extreme force and appeasement. Pro-Taliban forces now appear capable of launching the kind of coordinated assaults inside Pakistan's border regions as they do in the volatile south and east of Afghanistan.

A U.S. intelligence estimate last year said a Musharraf peace pact in 2006 with Taliban militants had allowed al Qaeda to regroup in Pakistan's tribal belt, a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

In Florida, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command said the rise in violence was pushing Pakistan to be more open to suggestions that American troops train and advise Pakistani forces.

That is a touchy subject in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, where many people are leery of Musharraf's alliance with Washington since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but Navy Adm. William J. Fallon said he believes Pakistani leaders are beginning to view the militants as a dire threat.

"They see they've got real problems internally," Fallon said.

Masood, the political analyst, said tribesmen along the frontier are increasingly joining up with Taliban forces from across the border in Afghanistan.

"Even if they don't support the Taliban per se, they are now siding with them rather than the government because they think Musharraf and the army are an extension of the Americans," he said.

Washington considers Musharraf a key ally in the fight against extremist groups. President Bush and other U.S. officials have frequently praised Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup but resigned from the army in December and is now ruling as a civilian president.

After the fall of Sararogha Fort, opposition leaders were quick to blame Musharraf for the deteriorating security situation.

"Musharraf is the root cause of all problems," said Nawaz Sharif, a leading opposition politician and the prime minister who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999.

"If he goes, 95 per cent of the problems of this country will be solved. There will be no bomb blasts, there will be no missile attacks," Sharif told reporters in his hometown of Lahore

 

[kilekaldar]

Islamic militants attack bases in Pakistan

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080116/pakistan_bases_080117/20080117?hub=World

Updated Thu. Jan. 17 2008 6:37 AM ET

The Associated Press

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Suspected Islamic militants attacked a Pakistani military base in the restive Afghan border region with rockets and small-arms fire, while four villagers were killed Thursday when mortars slammed into their homes, officials said.

The violence followed the seizure by militants of a fort in the region that that left seven dead and 15 missing, eroding public confidence in the U.S.-allied government's ability to control the frontier area, where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters flourish.

The mortars slammed into several homes in the rugged region, killing at least four civilians, two of them women, and wounding 13 others, residents and an intelligence official said. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The intelligence offical said it appeared the army fired the rounds, but a military spokesman denied it.

"We don't care if Taliban and the security forces fight each other, but they should look out for the local population and avoid indiscriminate shelling which is hitting homes and killing innocent women and children,'' said Noor Muhammad, a resident in Kotakai village.

In other violence in the border region, insurgents fired small arms and rockets at a military base in Ladha in South Waziristan late Wednesday, drawing retaliatory fire from troops, the military said in a statement. No casualties were reported in the clash.

Separately, at least three rockets landed near an air force base early Thursday in Kamra, a town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad, the statement said. One hit a mess hall for junior officers located outside the base, the local police chief said. There were no injuries.

The seizure of Sararogha Fort was a major embarrassment to Pakistan's security forces.

Seven members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed in the surprise attack late Tuesday, the military said. Twenty more were listed as missing after the rebels breached the walls of the fort which dates back to the British colonial era, but five of them have since been located, the military said.

The military said Thursday the militants had withdrawn from the fort. It claimed the defenders killed 40 militants before being overwhelmed, but the rebels said only two of its fighters died.

Compounding the rising attacks in the volatile tribal region, Pakistan also is reeling from a series of suicide attacks that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and hundreds more people, chipping away at President Pervez Musharraf's standing before the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

Maulvi Muhammad Umer, a spokesman for the Taliban in the border area, warned the government would face more attacks across Pakistan if it did not release Taliban prisoners and stop military operations in the frontier region.

"Attacks will continue not only in the tribal areas, but we will target the government everywhere in the country,'' he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The insurgents who seized the base were said to be followers of Baitullah Mehsud, an Islamic hard-liner who since December has been sole leader of an umbrella group of Taliban sympathizers and who is also thought to have links to al Qaeda.

Musharraf has blamed Mehsud and another pro-Taliban cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, for about 20 suicide attacks that killed 400 people over the last three months. Mehsud, labeled enemy No. 1 by the government, also masterminded the brazen capture of 213 Pakistani soldiers last August.

"The militants are now challenging the army openly. They have become very bold and are consolidating their positions,'' Talat Masood, a retired general who is now a political analyst, said.

Musharraf first deployed the army in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions along the frontier in late 2001 to chase down al Qaeda militants fleeing the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers are now in the area, supported by heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter gunships, but they have had little success in stopping militants from infiltrating into Afghanistan or in quelling Pakistan's own Islamic insurgency

 

[tomahawk6]

A second fort was abandoned to the taliban.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/01/pakistani_troops_aba.php

The Taliban have captured a second paramilitary fort in the tribal agency of South Waziristan, but this time the fort was taken without a fight. Pakistani paramilitary troops from the Frontier Corps deserted the Saklatoi outpost on the Afghan border after the Taliban threatened to attack. About 40 paramilitary soldiers fled the post without a fight.

The surrender of the Saklatoi outpost comes just one day after the Taliban launched a conventional military attack on a fort in Sararogha in South Waziristan. The Taliban overran the fort after breaching a wall with explosives during a nighttime assault. Reports put the number of Taliban forces used in the attack between 400 and 1,000. Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said Baitullah Mehsud personally led the attack.

The military failed to provide helicopter or air support for the beleaguered soldiers at Sararogha. Some artillery support was provided after soldiers called for support after the fort was breached. "The forts were well-stocked and soldiers had been told to fight to the last man, the last bullet," and unnamed official told Daily Times. "The soldiers did put up a good fight in a seemingly hopeless situation."

The government claimed the Taliban lost between 40 and 50 fighters in the attack, with seven paramilitaries killed, 20 escaped and 15 missing.

The Taliban disputes these claims. Omar said 16 soldiers were killed and 24 captured during the one-sided battle. He claimed only two Taliban fighters were killed during the assault. Sources told Dawn and Daily Times that eight of the Shia soldiers were "slaughtered" by having their throats slit. The Taliban seized weapons, ammunition, and other supplies from the fort, and are said to have abandoned the outpost.

Over 200,000 Taliban and allied groups are said to be under arms in the tribal areas and the wider Northwest Frontier Province. Baitullah Mehsud, who now commands the newly created Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, personally commands 30,000 Taliban fighters.

The Taliban and al Qaeda operate 29 training camps in North and South Waziristan alone. More camps are said to be operational in Bajaur, Mohmand, Tank, Peshawar, and other tribal agencies and settled districts of the Northwest Frontier Province. Taliban, al Qaeda and allied movements such as Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba (which is now Jamaat-ud-Dawa), Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and a host of domestic Pakistani terror groups are pushing their fighters through the training camps.

The Taliban has organized under military lines, a US military intelligence officer familiar with the situation in northwestern Pakistan informed The Long War Journal. The Taliban is known to have formed units analogous to battalion and brigade formations, and may be organized at the divisional and corps level. The Taliban military organization has a clear-cut command structure, with established ranks.

Al Qaeda is also believed to have reformed the notorious 055 Brigade, the military officer stated. The 055 Brigade is the al Qaeda military unit which was dismantled during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. Other al Qaeda military formations are said to have been formed.

The attack on the Sararogha fort, the capture of a company of Pakistani troops in South Waziristan in September 2007, and the Taliban opposition to a Pakistani military incursion in South Waziristan highlight the Taliban's ability to stand up to the Pakistani military in a conventional fight. The rise of the Taliban in the Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal areas during 2006 and 2007 and the subsequent peace deals in North and South Waziristan, Mohmand, and Swat has given the Taliban and al Qaeda the time and space to organize along military lines and stand toe to toe with the Pakistani military. Coupled with the intense suicide campaign which has been ongoing since late 2006 and the strikes focusing on secure military bases housing nuclear weapons, the Taliban and al Qaeda are vying for control of the Pakistani state.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Sounds like a good reason for two clandestine carpet bombing runs. There is always plausible deniability,and if the recieiving government is serious about eradication, they shouldn't push the sovereingty issue too much

 

[Dog Walker]

Pakistan says dozens of militants killed in fighting
Updated Fri. Jan. 18 2008 11:57 AM ET
The Associated Press

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080118/pakistan_afghan_080118/20080118?hub=World

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces killed dozens of militants in South Waziristan on Friday, the army said, as violence escalated sharply along the Afghan border following Taliban assaults on two strategic military outposts earlier this week.
A large number of militants gathered to the north of another fort at Ladha after attacking it with small arms and rockets. Security forces responded with artillery, mortar and small arms fire, killing between 50 and 60 militants and forcing the rest to disperse, an army statement said.
Also Friday, a convoy of security forces came under attack near the village of Chakmalai, sparking a one-hour clash. The army estimated that between 20 and 30 militants were killed. Four soldierss were wounded.
It was not immediately possible to independently confirm the casualty figures.
Earlier Friday, a medic in Chakmalai reported heavy fighting after a large number of infantrymen moved into the area under the protection of helicopter gunships -- although the army spokesman denied it had launched an offensive. The medic, Alam Sher, said two people were killed close to the village.
"Since early morning I have been hearing gunshots and explosions, and I am receiving calls from local people to come to provide medical aid to the injured,'' he said, adding that nobody could get to the two bodies because the gunfire was continuous.
An intelligence official in the region confirmed that fighting was going on in Chakmalai and that the army and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were trying to clear the area of pro-Taliban insurgents.
"Security troops moved in after fighting the militants, and they have taken up positions at strategic locations to prevent militants from operating from this area,'' said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
On Thursday, the army reported Cobra gunships fired on two vehicles carrying rebels, killing eight.
The fighting follows assaults by hundreds of troops loyal to Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud on two military forts this week in South Waziristan that highlighted rising rebel control over the area by al Qaeda and Taliban fighters blamed for a surge in suicide attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In other violence, a suspected Sunni extremist blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque, killing 11 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The strike late Thursday wounded 25 people, including a prominent Shiite cleric, ahead of this weekend's Ashoura festival, which often is scarred by sectarian violence.
The attack added to tensions in the country ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections that many predict will weaken President Pervez Musharraf's grip on power eight years after he seized control of the nuclear-armed nation in a military coup.
In a related development, two Sunni extremists on death row for a 2004 attack on a procession that killed 42 Shiites were found missing from their cell Friday in Quetta in the southwest province of Baluchistan, said city police chief Rehmatullah Niazi.
There was no sign of a forced exit and several jail officials were being questioned over the escape, he said.
Militants have launched a wave of suicide bombings against security forces and politicians in recent months, killing at least 400 people, including the Dec. 27 gun and bomb attack that killed secular opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who had vowed to battle Islamic extremism.

 

[Dog Walker]

Jan 25, 2:19 PM EST
30 Killed in Pakistan Border Violence
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Associated Press Writer

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PAKISTAN?SITE=CACHI&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Fighting spread in Pakistan's volatile borderlands on Friday as the military pounded hideouts of Taliban militants who had hijacked ammunition supply trucks, killing up to 30 suspected rebels, the army said.
Two paramilitary troops were killed and 10 wounded in the clashes around Dara Adam Khel, a town on a key strategic route linking Pakistan's northwestern frontier with the rest of the country.
While the Taliban number relatively few in the town, their ability to intercept a military supply convoy has worrying implications. The route connects Peshawar - the army's regional headquarters just 25 miles away - with the battlefields of Waziristan, a lawless region regarded as a stronghold for Taliban and al-Qaida.
In the past two weeks, militants have increased attacks on Pakistani security forces in the region. Hundreds of fighters have launched assaults on remote military forts, drawing comparisons with Taliban tactics against NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.
President Pervez Musharraf, who is touring Europe and trying to firm up his shaky standing after months of escalating violence and political turmoil at home, has dismissed the rebel offensive as mere "pinpricks" against its 100,000 troops in the tribal regions.
He also dismissed Friday a U.S. offer to send a small number of American combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency.
The military claims 34 soldiers and 255 militants have died since Jan. 14, mostly in South Waziristan, where it has deployed infantry, aircraft and tanks in a drive to clear the lawless, mountainous area of insurgents.
The casualty figures, difficult to verify independently in an insecure and largely inaccessible region, have been disputed by the militants.
Maulvi Umer, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban, a militant coalition led by Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, dismissed the latest claim of 30 militant dead in Dara Adam Khel, saying only a few of its fighters were wounded. He said six soldiers were killed.
The fighting broke out after militants captured four trucks carrying supplies and ammunition for the paramilitary Frontier Corps and refused to return them, said Arif Khan, a local government official.
Umer justified the hijacking on the grounds that the weapons were going to be used against Taliban forces.
Local pro-Taliban Afridi tribesmen have gained influence in the area in recent months after clamping down on a notorious car-snatching and kidnapping gang. They have since tried to enforce an extreme form of Islamic law, closing video shops and threatening schools that teach girls.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Bush administration was willing to send a small number of U.S. combat troops to Pakistan to help fight the insurgency if Pakistani authorities ask for such help.
But Musharraf on Friday reiterated that Pakistan opposes any foreign forces on its soil and said "the man in the street will not allow this - he will come out and agitate."