Posted on 11/06/2009 8:09:27 AM PST by NormsRevenge
ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army entered the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a major offensive in the northwest on Friday, as gunmen wounded a senior army officer and a soldier in the capital.
The operation in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary in Pakistan, has sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed about 300 civilians and security forces in the past month. The shooting in Islamabad was the third such attack in about two weeks.
The militants hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve as it pushes deeper into the isolated, mountainous region near the Afghan border. But the army pressed ahead Friday, entering Makeen, the hometown of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in August.
Troops razed Mehsud's house, an act of vengeance for the hundreds of people the Pakistani Taliban has killed in the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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