DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Senior Pakistan Militant Reported Dead In Strike

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Senior Pakistan Militant Reported Dead In Strike

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Tom Wright - WSJ
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 3, 2013: A U.S. drone strike killed Mullah Nazir, a Pakistani militant leader who maintained a truce with the Pakistan army but U.S. commanders said cooperated with Afghan Taliban fighters in attacks on U.S. troops, according to news reports.

Mr. Nazir was one of nine people killed in the strike on a house in a village in the Pakistani territory of South Waziristan, the Associated Press reported, citing Pakistani security officials. Another strike hit a vehicle in North Waziristan, killing four people, the AP said.

In Washington, U.S. officials stopped short of confirming Mr. Nazir's death, but said his elimination would be a "significant blow."

"It would be helpful not just to the United States, but also to our Pakistani partners and the Afghans," said George Little, the Pentagon press secretary. "This is someone who has a great deal of blood on his hands.…This would be a major development."


Mr. Nazir's militant organization controls areas of South Waziristan that border Afghanistan. He used that position to team up with Afghan Taliban fighters battling coalition troops across the border, U.S. commanders said.

Mr. Nazir refrained from attacking Pakistani troops under a truce that held for the past four years, said Imtiaz Gul, author of "Pakistan Before and After Osama."

That allowed Pakistan's army to concentrate on targeting the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistan Taliban, a militant group that regularly attacked government, military and civilian targets. In 2009, the army invaded South Waziristan and largely pushed out the group, also many of whose fighters found shelter in North Waziristan and other tribal regions.

Pakistan's truce with Mr. Nazir, who led the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe, was an attempt by the government to show progress in bringing South Waziristan back under the writ of the state after years of lawlessness, Mr. Gul said.

In recent months, the military has allowed hundreds of refugees from the fighting in 2009 to return to South Waziristan and has been showcasing new schools, roads and other infrastructure.

But Mr. Nazir also continued to allow foreign militants to take shelter in his territory, undercutting any chance for long-term stability in the region, Mr. Gul said. Those militants, he said, likely included Arab members of al Qaeda who are believed to have taken part in attacks on Pakistani targets.

"It was a double game he was playing," Mr. Gul said. "I don't think the Pakistanis would be annoyed" by his killing.

Pakistan's military has publicly condemned U.S. drone strikes. But Pakistan military leaders also have acknowledged cooperating on some attacks by giving intelligence on potential targets.

—Julian E. Barnes contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications 
Imtiaz Gul is author of the book "Pakistan Before and After Osama." An earlier version of this article incorrectly gave the title as "Pakistan Before and After Obama."


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Tom Wright - WSJ
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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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Why You Shouldn't Trust The Pakistani Government

Why You Shouldn't Trust The Pakistani Government

(NSI News Source Info) February 7, 2009: CNN has a story on the situation in Swat, the Taliban-controlled region in Pakistan's northwest outside of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Hina Khan, a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, talks about how the Taliban are in control of the region and are expanding thier influence: "Right now, [Swat Valley] is under the control of the Taliban," she said. "They are knocking on the doors of Peshawar, and I have no doubt they will be knocking on the doors of Islamabad [if] the government continues the complacency they are showing right now." Pakistani troops patrol in Mingora, the main town of Pakistan's troubled Swat valley. Pakistani helicopter gunships involved in a bitter offensive against militants in a northwestern tribal region struck targets in a neighboring area, a sign that the conflict may be widening to other parts of the rugged zone bordering Afghanistan. But Major General Athar Abbas, the spokesman for Pakistan's military, disagrees: "There is success," Abbas said of operations against anti-government forces in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan. "The success rate of the army's operation is pretty good in these areas." I've been closely following the situation in Pakistan's northwest for five years now. And sadly, I have to take the word of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl over the word of a senior Pakistani military officer. Here's why: Pakistan's military leadership has been outright untruthful to the media multiple times in the past on events in the northwest. In two of the more blatant instances, Major General Abbas had to backtrack on his falsehoods. A Pakistani local Taliban shoots a kidnapper in Rahim Kor village near the Mammad agency, some 60 kilometers from Peshawar a day after they captured him with three kidnapped persons during an operation in the area. Pakistani tribal Taliban executed a person under the Islamic principle of Qisas on the charges of killing one of their comrades. Pakistan's new government is expected to sign a peace deal with Taliban rebels, but the pact can only succeed if United State and NATO allies with troops in Afghanistan give it time, analysts say. In August 2007, Baitullah Mehsud's Taliban forces in South Waziristan captured an entire company of about 300 Pakistani regular Army troops as they were patrolling through the tribal agency. Abbas denied this and initially claimed the troops were merely sheltering in a valley due to bad weather after losing communications, but it was later confirmed that a company-sized unit driving in 17 vehicles was captured by Mehsud's forces. After backtracking, the military claimed about 110 troops were captured. But after the Taliban displayed the soldiers to a BBC television crew, it was confirmed 300 troops were captured. In another incident in January 2008, the Taliban overran the Saklatoi Fort in South Waziristan, but the military emphatically denied the reports. "Absolutely baseless and I reject this report," Abbas said at the time. "I want to clarify that the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps personnel are still present in the fort." Two days later, Abbas briefed the media on the military's successful operation to retake the Saklatoi Fort. Hopefully, senior U.S. and NATO military commanders in Afghanistan and Western diplomats will begin taking what the Pakistanis are saying with a bag of salt.