Pakistan’s military promised yesterday to target the Taliban leadership in a ground and air offensive launched against the Taliban in South Waziristan, which it said had killed 78 militants so far.
“The last 24 hours, reportedly 18 terrorists have been killed in various incidents and security forces losses are two soldiers and 12 injured,” Major General Athar Abbas told the first news conference on the operation.
He said nine soldiers and 78 militants had been killed since the operation began early on Saturday.
PHOTO: AFP
The figures were impossible to confirm with the battleground sealed off to journalists and all communications in the area shut down.
Ground forces have massed on the western, eastern and northwestern outskirts of Kotkai, the hometown of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud and key Taliban leader Qari Hussain, readying for an assault.
“The high-level targets are the leadership. We hope to get the leadership,” said Abbas, the army’s chief spokesman. “The forces have taken over the heights, features around Kotkai. Kotkai is the hometown of Qari Hussain, formerly known as the mentor of suicide bombs.”
Commanders have been drawing up battle plans for months for what is likely to prove the army’s toughest challenge to date in its war against Islamist militants in the region.
“We wanted to muster our strength, get our resources together. We are an army that does not have unlimited resources,” Abbas said. “We were waiting to have sufficient resources available to start the operation.”
Concerns, however, are mounting that the assault will spark another refugee crisis ahead of heavy snow in a bitterly cold winter.
US officials consulted Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders as troops advanced toward Taliban bastions, heavily mined roads forcing armored convoys to move painstakingly slowly, a military official said.
The insurgents have mined roads with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) of the type deployed to devastating effect against NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, the official said, adding that the Taliban could be luring troops in.
“Resistance is not stiff, but the major problem is the presence of IEDs. We have to send soldiers by foot to clear the IEDs for troops to advance,” he said.
Troops were moving with their flanks protected to prevent the kind of attacks on exposed formations that have caused heavy army losses in past operations, the official said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani urged the international community to provide financial assistance for relief and reconstruction at talks with US General David Petraeus yesterday, his office said.
Some of the 100,000 people who have fled to Dera Ismail Khan, on foot and stuffed into pick-up trucks weighed down with bedding and animals, spoke of intensifying fighting and air strikes targeting villages.
“I decided to leave when my neighbor’s house was destroyed by jet fighters,” said Rahim Dad Mehsud, a laborer from Tiarza who said he walked three days to leave South Waziristan with 12 relatives.
Also See: Kabul must prove itself, US says
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
GREATER REACH? Auto parts and wood products would face tariffs of up to 15%, matching those targeting the EU, Japan and South Korea, Vice Premier said The US has announced that preferential tariff treatment for Taiwan’s non-semiconductor Section 232 goods would take effect retroactively from May 1, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The US government yesterday posted a notice on the Federal Register’s public inspection Web site previewing tariff concessions for Taiwan under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Taiwan-US investment after two months of negotiations. The MOU signed on Jan. 15 stipulated three major preferential tariff arrangements: a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate for Taiwan without stacking most-favored nation (MFN) rates; preferential Section 232 treatment for semiconductors and related products; and preferential Section 232 treatment for non-semiconductor
RSS