Pakistan Army Captures Militant Stronghold

Troops Take Town In Tribal Border Region Described As "Mega-Sanctuary" For Fighters

(AP)  A two-month offensive by Pakistani forces has driven militants from a stronghold through which Taliban and al Qaeda fighters had poured into neighboring Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops, the army said Saturday.

But the operation has cost the lives of at least 95 civilians as well as 73 troops and left a trail of devastation in a region where poverty already drives young Muslims into the arms of extremists.

The military said its forces captured Loi Sam in the Bajur tribal region on Friday after a long and bloody struggle. The town sits on a vital intersection of roads leading to the border as well as to three neighboring Pakistan regions.

"Now we have complete control in this area from where miscreants used to go to Afghanistan, Mohmand, Dir and Swat," army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told reporters brought to the intersection on Saturday. "Miscreants have been expelled or killed."

Bajur is part of Pakistan's tribal belt that has become the stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters waging an intensifying insurgency on both sides of the border.

Pakistan's army launched an offensive in Bajur in early August, saying the region had become a "mega-sanctuary" for militants who had set up a virtual mini-state with Taliban-style courts.

U.S. officials worried about record fatalities among their forces in Afghanistan have praised the operation and said it was helping reduce violence on the Afghan side.

However, there has been no halt to the regular American missile strikes on suspected militants hide-outs in other parts of Pakistan's wild border region, despite Islamabad's protests that its American allies are violating its sovereignty.

The army says it faced stiff resistance near Loi Sam from local Taliban militants reinforced by foreign fighters, including some from Afghanistan. More areas remain to be cleared, and Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, who commands a paramilitary force involved in the fighting, said it could take six months to a year to gain complete control of Bajur.

The generals spoke to reporters flown into Bajur on a military helicopter. Poor security and government restrictions have made it virtually impossible to verify accounts of the fighting.

Khan said a total of 1,500 suspected Pakistani and foreign militants had died in the operation. He said they included several "important" commanders but declined to name them.

The region has been seen as a possible hiding place for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, but Khan said the troops had not picked up their trail.

His count of 95 civilian deaths was the first official estimate of the toll on noncombatants - a critically sensitive issue in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, where observers warn that wronging civilians only increases sympathy for the militants.

He didn't say whether they were killed by militants or troops, though officials have acknowledged that artillery and airstrikes have devastated many residential areas.

Nearly 200,000 people have fled the fighting, many of them to rough camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

What reporters driven from Khar, the region's main town, to Loi Sam on Saturday saw made plain that many of them have nothing but despair to return to.

In one village along the road, devastated residential compounds, some of them connected by militant tunnels, lined both sides of the road. Bloodstained pillows and twisted aluminum cooking pots lay in one pile of rubble in an area strewn with thousands of spent shell cases.

In Loi Sam itself, hardly a building had escaped. Houses, shops and gas stations were badly damaged or destroyed. There was no one to talk to except the troops, some of whom stood around a line of tanks on a street strewn with dust and debris.

Abbas said the victims would be compensated for the loss of their homes and the crops and animals dying untended in the fields.

Pakistan's government has promised to flood the border area with development work, much of it funded by Washington, to combat the misery and ignorance in which religious extremism has thrived.

But observers say Pakistani authorities and their Western backers have failed to keep such promises in the past, breeding distrust of the government in a region where it has never had control.

The aftermath will also test Pakistan's revamped counterinsurgency policy.

Under a plan to turn the paramilitary Frontier Corps into the main fighting force along the border, some 32 U.S. troops arrived in Pakistan this month to provide training in using modern weapons and gathering intelligence.

Officials hope the Frontier Corps, recruited from the Pashtun tribes which straddle the border, will prove more effective in preventing militants from resurfacing than the regular army, a force dominated by ethnic Punjabis and viewed as occupiers in the border zone.

American commanders also hope the force will do more to stop militants slipping into Afghanistan - an enduring complaint of U.S. officials and one reason that Washington has authorized stepped-up missile strikes.

Indicating the potential, Khan said the flow of militants in the opposite direction into Bajur had eased recently. After a tip from Pakistan, American-led troops had "effectively checked" a group trying to cross into Pakistan on Friday night, Khan said.

[stopsocialis]

Just like Obama has said, if we know where these terrorist are, and Pakistan can''''t or won''''t go get them, we will.
posted by thechooch1

-The Terrorists are otherwise known as Islamic jihadists, and they are not only in one Country in the Middle East, they are in fact all over the friggin globe.

Number 2, barak Obama isn''t the Messiah. What he says is not the absolute truth.

Please learn how to think and do research for yourself before it''s too late.

[pirmin3]

The Pakistani military would have trouble capturing a girl scout camp! This is just spin so GW has something to show for squandering our billions.

[lixiangmei45]

not everuy one is that good .see what the American did ;sending wepon to other country to let them fight and failed to keep to its words of finacial aid.American is losing the world by lying and being inresponsible.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by Dooney8 at 04:07 PM : Oct 25, 2008



Just because you can''t think for your self does not mean the rest of the world is a simple-minded. I am talking to them, not you anyway...

[dooney8]

We need more tax cuts for the rich. Big oil is only making 7 or 8 billion in profits each quarter.

[dooney8]

Obama''s gonna make everything better.

[hsinco-2009]

our votes were very productive this last term ,for our votes congress passed....nothing..until the end of the session and then burned us for 700 billion dollars, oh yeah you people have forgotten that ,Wait till you vote them back for more , They are going to fix this mess they caused ...they promise .

Posted by tincup356 at 03:49 PM : Oct 25, 2008


Well, don''t worry. Help is on the way. The Dems will have a 60 Senator majority and the OBSTRUCTIONIST REPUGS will be gone.

Change is in the air!

[dooney8]

Hey "Tool Mangler", are you a wet blanket or what? Mankind is a cancer? Wow. You just need a new boyfriend. I think you''r last one left you with trust issues.

[tincup356]

our votes were very productive this last term ,for our votes congress passed....nothing..until the end of the session and then burned us for 700 billion dollars, oh yeah you people have forgotten that ,Wait till you vote them back for more , They are going to fix this mess they caused ...they promise .

[tincup356]

instead of looking at the other party and saying , look what the did...look at your own party and ask ....What have they done? what did my party do to stop this from happening? Congress has been too busy trying to be dope cops for the sports world to take care of the country,they should have been minding the shop as they were elected to do.

[tincup356]

Strange how the government can convince the people that one terrorist attack means giving up rights and war forever, but countless terms of misrepresentation, lies broken promises, economic disaster, countless scandals,behavior from both parties that would not fit someone addressed "the honorable", can get the masses to instantly forget all their screw ups, and vote them right back in office...absolutely incredible.

[tincup356]

Not one single democrat or republican in Washington will admit that this war is a main gear to the effects we are feeling in the world,without the war oil would not be at as high of a price, gas would be lower, countless dollars would be stopped from being wasted in a lie war that never should have happened,and wouldn''t have if congress would have voted against it.So Why are we still there?We have a money leak in this country, the money has leaked into the pockets of greed,Congress on both sides of the isle are GUILTY, We are the shame of the world right now and we owe it to the great members of both parties in power in our government...Great Job.... NOT . I will one of those who will not give either candidate my vote as to do so would be a vote against Americans, and our future.

[tincup356]

We got # 2 Again? and again and again...? the worst job on earth...being #2 in any al queda command lol.We got #2 is beginning to be like "kilroy was here in ww2.", or stay the course, more propaganda to make the people think they are doing something...B.S.

[thrdarmored]

Toolmangler: Oh, I see your point. Yes, it would be different if his name was John Smith.

[rhs648]

Good news if true. About time the focus was placed on those who attacked us. Bush promised to get Bin Laden 7 years ago and what do we have to show for it? He hasn''''t even gotten serious about killing al Qaeda except for the ones who followed us to Iraq. Can''''t wait for a new smart leader to take over in a couple of months and finally get the bad guys.

Posted by gotagrip

Your assertion does not take into consideration the political and philosophical differences between the Republicans and Democrats. Some Republicans will always vote for Republicans and some Democtrats will always vote for Democrats. Left leaning Democrats and Right leaning Republicans are too far apart and rarely agree. Those in the middle and independants tend to swin back and forth. Although Obama appears to be leading, at least 40% of Ameican voters support McCain. It is unfair to classify these people as racist or bigoted just because they favor a candidate other than Obama.

[toolmangler-2009]

It''s hard to put away old fears, sometimes inbred.
Posted by ThrdArmored at 02:09 PM : Oct 25, 2008



Thanks for the acknowledgment but I was speaking of "everything" being the same but the name, (Black, born in Hawaii, biracial the whole nine)

[thrdarmored]

Toolmangler: You''re right on the money there. If he was a white, catholic democrat, he would absolutely be running away with this election. It probably would be the largest landslide in American history. It''s hard to put away old fears, sometimes inbred.

[toolmangler-2009]

3/4 of the brave young men and women in the United States Military support John McCain. They do not trust Hussein Obama. They think Obama is the enemy...
Posted by mr22585 at 12:55 PM : Oct 25, 2008


I wonder what the numbers would be if his name were "John Alexander Medford" but everything else was the same and he had never had a Muslim sounding name? Just curious.

[rhs648]

Good news if true. About time the focus was placed on those who attacked us. Bush promised to get Bin Laden 7 years ago and what do we have to show for it? He hasn''''t even gotten serious about killing al Qaeda except for the ones who followed us to Iraq. Can''''t wait for a new smart leader to take over in a couple of months and finally get the bad guys.

Posted by gotagrip

You may be in for a dissappointment as the campaign promises are broken over and over again. Look at how ineffective the Democtatic leadership proved itself in Congress over the last two years. Once Bush is out of office and we have have Obama and a Democratic Congress, there won''t be any excuses left or anyone else to blame. Some people will be longing for the good old days. Sadly, we are allowing the present economy influence our choice of leadership. The economy always improves. Hopefully, not too much damage will be done by then.

[thrdarmored]

Well, certainly 9/10 is the rediculous number. Iraq is making readiness better not destroying it.