Posted on 02/22/2004 5:07:56 PM PST by quantim
Pakistan is preparing to mount a major military offensive against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces along its border with Afghanistan in the next several weeks, Pakistani government officials said Sunday.
The operation is expected to be the first act of a violent, and potentially pivotal, spring along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In recent weeks, signs have emerged that American and Pakistani forces, as well as Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, are all preparing to mount their own separate "spring offensives" in the area.
American military officials expect Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters to try to disrupt national elections scheduled for June in Afghanistan. At the same time, U.S. and Pakistani forces are expected to step up their efforts to gain firm control of the border area and try to capture the fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani officials denied recent press reports that the locations of bin Laden, or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had been narrowed down to an area of several dozen square miles. Instead, they say the offensive is part of a calculated, step-by-step process to drive Qaeda members over the border where American forces will be waiting for them.
"There has certainly been pressure building up on Al Qaeda and their tribal supporters," said a senior Pakistani official. "They are on the run, and we will not let this momentum peter out."
Mohammed Azam Khan, the top Pakistani government official in the South Waziristan tribal agency, said on Sunday that he was requesting triple the number of Pakistani troops in the area - to 12,000 from 4,000. Hundreds of Al Qaeda members, including Chechens and Uzbek fighters, are believed to be hiding with their families in the area, and launching cross-border attacks on American forces in Afghanistan.
"We are waiting for the troops to come," Khan said in a telephone interview. "Ours is a large area that requires a large number of troops."
Last week, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, said in a briefing with Pentagon reporters that U.S. and Pakistani forces were working together to create a strategy in which they will function as a "hammer and anvil" that traps Taliban and Qaeda forces along the border.
In an interview on Saturday, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Beevers, the director of public affairs for coalition forces in Afghanistan, said that the emphasis was now on small groups of soldiers deploying in villages for days at a time.
By distributing aid and being more of a permanent presence, American forces hope to gain the trust of Afghans and collect better intelligence. In the past, large groups of American forces have carried out vast offensives and sweeps.
"What we are doing is much more of a counterinsurgency operation," Beevers said. "We are using small units much more than big-scale offensive operations."
Mohammed Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan.
Musharraf is over a barrel at the moment.
If so, I we help them aim the laser designator and drop the bombs.
Because you're smart.
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