Posted on 06/17/2004 11:16:30 PM PDT by AdmSmith
ISLAMABAD (CNN) -- A tribal leader accused of harboring Al Qaeda militants in Pakistan's western border region was killed Thursday night in a targeted missile strike, according to Pakistan intelligence sources. The Associated Press quoted an army spokesman Friday as identifying the tribal leader as Nek Mohammed, a former Taliban fighter.
He was killed late Thursday at the home of another tribal chief, the spokesman said.
"We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
SahWEEEEEET!
I know I'm forever the optimist..
You realize this thread is a couple of years old right...?
D'oh! :-/
This is the famous Nek Mohammad thread...we post all breaking news out of Pakistan here first.
BTTT
I know a Pakistani guy named Danish, pronounced Daah-neesh. This guy may not have anything to do with Denmark.
OK, what about the Imam part of his name? Is he an Imam or is that just a name?
Thanks, I learn new things every day.
The Hellfire is a missile.
"Ata-ur-Rehman alias Ibrahim alias Umer alias Uzair Ahmed, described as the Amir of the Jundullah."
That's a nice catch. And his deputy too. Good work.
Got some more in the Miran Shah area.
Pakistani Forces, Militant Tribesmen Clash
yahoo news/AP ^ | Mar. 4, 2005
By BASHIRULLAH KHAN, Associated Press Writer
Pakistani helicopter gunships fired on armed pro-Taliban tribesmen after they clashed with security forces Saturday near the border with Afghanistan in the aftermath of a military strike on a suspected militant hide-out.
About 25 militants were killed in the fighting in the lawless North Waziristan region, an army official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
Pakistan army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, confirmed the clashes but declined to give any details about casualties.
At least three paramilitary soldiers also were killed and about 12 were wounded, most in vehicle ambushes, according to other security and intelligence officials in the region. They said helicopter gunships had been used to target the tribal fighters' positions.
The violence came as President Bush visited the capital, Islamabad, about 190 miles to the northeast, and voiced solidarity with Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in fighting terrorism.
Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 forces along the Afghan frontier, but has failed to assert the government's control in the tribal regions that have resisted outside influence for centuries.
Waziristan is known as a hotbed of al-Qaida and Taliban militants who draw support from the local Pashtun tribal people. Many of the rebellious tribesmen involved in Saturday's unrest were believed to be Islamic students who are sympathetic with the hard-line Taliban militia.
Anger has been stirring among the tribesmen since Pakistan's army attacked a suspected al-Qaida camp earlier this week in the village of Saidgi near the Afghan border, about 10 miles from Miran Shah. Military officials said 45 people, including foreign militants, were killed in the attack by helicopter gunships and ground forces, but the tribesmen claim local people died.
The fighting began Saturday in Mir Ali, a town near Miran Shah, when tribesmen opened fire on vehicles carrying paramilitary rangers, an army officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media about it.
Sultan, the army spokesman, said the tribesmen were led by a local cleric Maulvi Abdul Khaliq — who this week called for a jihad, or holy war, against Pakistan's army.
The tribesmen used rockets and other weapons to target security forces who responded against militant positions when the munitions started landing near homes and shops. "We acted swiftly to avoid civilian losses ... We are exercising maximum restraint," Sultan said.
Earlier Saturday, Khaliq demanded that authorities stop killing "innocent" people and only carry out operations against militants in coordination with locals.
He urged local elders and lawmakers not to visit the office of the region's top administrator to protest the Saidgi operation. The boycott was announced from loudspeakers mounted on pickup trucks and mosques in Miran Shah.
Bazaars and government offices closed after the announcement, and 500 families left the town, fearing a showdown between security forces and the armed tribesmen, who are mainly students from Islamic schools, a local intelligence official said.
Another official, who also declined to be named because of a lack of authorization, said many families were leaving in haste, without packing many belongings.
Lol
Pakistani Taliban take control of wild Waziristan
By Zeeshan Haider
Reuters
Tue May 30, 8:07 AM ET
When the Pakistan army's front line in its war on terrorism moved elsewhere, and the Taliban took control of his hometown, Baidar decided it was time to leave.
"The government is helpless. The Taliban is in full control there, not religious students, but militant Taliban," said the 30-year-old Wazir tribesman.
Baidar shut his medical store in the bazaar at Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies, and moved to Tank, just across the boundary in North West Frontier Province.
"The real worry is for businessmen and educated people because they fear being targeted or killed by the Taliban on suspicion of being informers for the government or America," said the shopkeeper, who, unlike many others, dared to give his name.
The Pakistan army, in the words of President Pervez Musharraf, chased al Qaeda out of South Waziristan "valley by valley" in an offensive that lasted from late 2003 to early 2005.
Thereafter the focus switched to North Waziristan, where more than 300 militants have been killed since mid-2005.
A few of them were core al Qaeda members, such as an Egyptian wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in East Africa, but most of the 75 or so foreigners killed were from Chechnya or Islamist guerrillas from Central Asia.
In an interview with Avt Khyber TV, an independent Pashto-language channel, aired on May 19, Musharraf said the operations against al Qaeda had been very successful, but in the next breath he said: "Extremism and Talibanization are spreading ... now the focus has shifted from terrorism to extremism."
And while the fighting has intensified in North Waziristan, its southern neighbor has become quiet -- too quiet.
"If you say there is peace, I would say yes there is no trouble. But if you ask whether there is any government I would say no," said a member of the Mehsuds, the other dominant tribe in South Waziristan, who, like Baidar, has moved to North West Frontier Province (NWFP) to escape the Taliban's power grab.
"They are basically strengthening their position. They are virtually ruling the roost."
The old social order has broken down in the towns and villages of Waziristan, a region populated by some of the most recalcitrant tribes on Pakistan's side of the Pashtun belt that straddles the border with Afghanistan.
As the military campaign moved north, political assassinations became commonplace in the south.
Unknown gunmen ambushed administrators, pro-government tribal elders and journalists, forcing many to flee with their families to the settled areas of NWFP.
"Almost all malakan (pro-government tribal elders) have left Waziristan," said Baidar.
RE-ENTER THE TALIBAN
A power vacuum opened the door for militant Muslim clerics, dubbed Pakistani Taliban by the media.
Musharraf says they have no single leader, although they may have ties with the Afghan Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
But Haji Mohammad Omar, a burly, heavily bearded 45-year-old is one of the new forces in South Waziristan.
Residents say his men roam around Wana with rocket launchers mounted on the back of their pick-up trucks.
"We have brought peace in Waziristan. We have eliminated excesses, oppression, robberies and drugs from Waziristan," he told Reuters by telephone from Wana.
The militants have opened offices and set up checkposts in Wana's main market, collecting fees from vehicles entering.
They have even set up a court to conduct summary trials.
Most times the mullahs increase the fine for murders, and executions are rare, although a man convicted of killing his son was shot dead in front of a crowd of 150 tribesmen in late March.
A veteran of the mujahideen guerrilla war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, Omar later fought with the Taliban and met al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Now, after being granted an amnesty and being paid to stop making trouble in 2004, Omar openly admits recruiting fighters to send them across the border to fight U.S. and Afghan forces.
He accuses Musharraf of "allying with infidels."
Critics say the government erred by giving militant leaders among the tribes too much respect, and by buying them off.
"These deals gave legitimacy to these people and that's why they are now expanding their influence," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a newspaper editor and expert on tribal affairs.
"Much of the Talibanization was spread by the very militants who were handed out massive bribes," a Daily Times editorial in May said bluntly.
Worse still, the vast majority of the deeply conservative and largely illiterate people support this self-styled Taliban of Waziristan, according to intelligence and government officials.
Waziristan's Taliban advise men to grow beards and veil their women, cameras are banned, and the militant mullahs are trying to stop people watching television or listening to music.
Musharraf cited a report he had received of televisions being set ablaze in Malakand, another tribal region on the frontier.
"This is a Talibanized mindset. It has spread. It has to be stopped. Now we are in a different ball game," Musharraf said.
The government is trying to set up councils of respected tribal elders and administrators, but it will take time.
Meantime, Musharraf says military operations must go on, although critics fear Pakistan will suffer from the backlash for years to come.
He warned that the Taliban influence was spreading from tribal areas to neighboring settled areas.
In Tank armed men roam the streets at night on motorcycles. They're Taliban, townsfolk mutter in fear.
"It is just like cancer. It is bound to spread if not properly treated," a senior security officer in Peshawar said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060530/lf_nm/security_pakistan_taliban_dc
Towards the end of OMS, it beame obvious that the Pak military was too slow, too disinclined to tangle, and too riddled with security leaks to have much chance of catching OBL or Zawahiri.
At the time, I was willing to settle for the long term benefits that establishing military control over the tribal regions would produce, denying AQ a sanctuary there.
Instead, it appears that Musharraf, in order to produce the minimum required results necessary to keep US funding flowing, has cut back on force numbers and concentrated the remaining forces in northern Waziristan.
The key to getting Musharraf to stick with productive efforts in the war on terrorism, is to tie payments directly to verified results. No money for promises, only fees transferred when the areas we are interested in achieve certain well planned levels of security.
When the government of Wana perhaps, has registered a certain number of foreign mujas, and when a certain number of permanent checkpoints have been established so that the movement of these potential terrorists can be monitored.
Perhaps more when the instances of firefights at a region's checkpoints drop below a certain frequency.
The overall plan needs to implement concrete signs of progress that integrate into an array of civilizing influence. As it stands right now, we hand over the money, and hope Musharraf does something useful with it.
Unless that changes, AQ will reconstitute there, and use the absence of law and order to formulate and carry out another 9/11.
"As it stands right now, we hand over the money, and hope Musharraf does something useful with it."
It seems that way.
" tie payments directly to verified results"
Yes, they should.
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