Posted on 03/30/2007 3:55:25 PM PDT by M. Espinola
Pakistani authorities say at least 56 people have been killed in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border, when local Pashtun tribesmen clashed with foreign Al-Qaeda militants.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said 54 of those deaths are from fighting today near Wana in the tribal region of South Waziristan.
There was no immediate information about how many of the casualties are foreign fighters. But earlier today, authorities said at least 10 Uzbek fighters and one local resident were killed overnight during a battle near Wana.
They said nine other Uzbeks were injured and one captured, and that foreign Al-Qaeda fighters also shot dead one local man.
Thousands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into Pakistan's tribal areas after the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Relations between the foreign militants and Pakistani tribesmen have deteriorated since then.
More than 160 people have been killed in fighting in the area on March 19, when a Taliban-commander-turned-government-supporter ordered Uzbek and Chechen militants to disarm.
Local residents say as many as 500 Uzbek and Chechen fighters are now besieged by about 1,500 Pakistani tribal fighters in the region's mountainous areas of Azam Warsak, Shen Warsak, and Kalusha.
More good news.
"Foreign fighters" = Al Qaeda, and Uzbeks = Osama's private army.
They are the same "Foreign fighters" Iran & Syria continue infiltrating in Iraq. It's time to clean up the entire greater region.
If this were actually the case.....Those 1,500 Pakistani tribal fighters would be chewed up....Those Chechen's can fight circles around most Taliban...
Even the fanatical Chechens can't beat three to one odds if they don't hold the high ground. And the locals should be better at initiating under those terms.
The Pashtun have home court advantage (They aren't Taliban per se). They know the terrain. Have greater local support and supplies, etc. These are the same people who helped defeat the soviets.
Hammering away at al Qaeda and the Tal-EEEeeeeee-Ban.
And if they hold enough of the strategic high ground...they would make mincemeat of 1,500 Taliban....3 to 1 odds or not..
It's doubtful that the Chechens control where they reside or their more numerous neighbors.
It's doubtful they will defeat their neighbors at such odds. Some can hold out better but victory, no, not very likely.
I don't know about that. Beside this is the tribal fighters home turf.
Wana
They have two incompatible goals as they see it, keeping the money pipeline flowing from America, and keeping the Pashtuns at each other's throats so that the Pashtuns don't come together and carve Pashtunistan out of the hide of that failed state, Pakistan. You might throw in a third goal, and that is preventing India from gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, so as to open a third front against Pakistan in the likely event of another Indo-Pakistan conflict.
Meanwhile, it's not India, America, or Afghanistan that is going to bring down the PakiWaki government. Ironically, it's the radical movement of jihad by the Baluchis, alqaeda foreign elements, afghan talibunnies, and Pakiwaki homegrown tabibunnies, that will ultimately destablise, and collapse the weak government of Pervez. Just my take.
The problem with that suggestion....is the Pak military can't clean out these border regions. They haven't controlled them in centuries......
Here's a thread with a number of good resources on the situation as a whole...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1809266/posts
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