Pakistani troops battling the Taliban have captured several points in the Swat Valley’s main town, the army said yesterday, including a spot nicknamed “bloody intersection” because militants routinely dumped the mutilated bodies of their victims there.
Elsewhere in the northwest, helicopter gunships pounded alleged militant hide-outs in a tribal region, killing at least 18 people, while police said they had captured an important militant commander and six other Taliban fighters.
The operation in Swat has strong support from Washington and retaking Mingora, the valley’s main commercial hub and urban center, is considered critical to its success.
A military statement yesterday said forces moving from street to street secured eight crossings while encountering at least 12 roadside bombs. One secured spot is Green Chowk, the “bloody intersection.”
Five suspected militants were killed in various parts of Mingora while 14 others were arrested, the army said. It has said 10,000 to 20,000 residents are still stranded in the town, which normally has a population of at least 375,000.
Officials have downplayed reports that the army would soon expand the offensive to the lawless, semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. However, violence has continued to flare in those areas.
Yesterday morning in the Orakzai tribal region, helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant targets in multiple locations, including a religious school, local government official Mohammad Yasin said.
At least six civilians were among the 18 dead, he said, adding that the targeted spots were strongholds of Hakeemullah Mehsud, a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Hundreds fled the area amid the fighting, he said.
Also yesterday, police in nearby Charsadda district said they caught seven Taliban militants during a raid on a religious school. They included Qari Ihsanullah, a Taliban commander suspected in attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Charsadda police Chief Riaz Khan said.
The military says about 1,100 suspected insurgents have died so far in the monthlong offensive in Swat and neighboring districts. It has not given any tally of civilian deaths, and it’s unclear how it is separating regular citizens killed from militants.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 hard-core insurgent fighters remain in Swat, the army says.
FRENCH TOURIST
Meanwhile, Pakistani police hunted yesterday for a French tourist kidnapped in the country’s restive southwest, but an officer said they still did not know who was behind the abduction.
Gunmen on Saturday snatched the 41-year-old man from a group of French nationals who were traveling in Baluchistan Province, on the border with Afghanistan and Iran.
He was kidnapped in an area where ethnic Baluch separatist groups and Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban are known to operate.
“We don’t know who the kidnappers are, what their motive is. We have not yet received any demand. We have really no idea about the kidnappers,” an official said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,