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 ...
When I think vacation, the FIRST place that comes to mind is South Waziristan.
Hopefully, these maneuvers will pay more dividends in the near future.
Then again, even those stylish Shalwar Kameez jammies the Paks wear get a little bit disheveled after taking a few Hellfire missiles to the lapel.
• “Nek Mohammed was tracked down by tracing an intercepted satellite phone call, a senior security official told The Associated Press...”
• “The British Broadcasting Corp. has conducted at least two phone interviews with Mohammed in the past week...”
• “Sultan would not confirm whether Mohammed was traced through a satellite phone call.”
• “It was not clear if the United States was involved in the effort to track Mohammed. Pakistan is thought to lack the sophisticated satellite technology necessary for such phone intercepts and acknowledges that it sometimes receives ``technical help'' from the Americans.”
It is plausable that those BBC calls were what allowed the U.S. to track down Nek Mohammed. But I find it highly unlikely that the BBC would knowingly cooperate in this kind of operation. However, their reporters could easily have been duped into this through a sting operation where a BBC intel contact offered the BBC a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to interview a live Taliban Jihad leader in the field.
But Who Killed Cock Robin?
• “Nek Mohammed...[and] six others were killed with Mohammed in the missile strike late Thursday.”
• “The helicopter fired a missile at Mohammed's hideout near Wana...”
• “We were tracking him down and he was killed last night by our hand, [said] Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.”
So, it was done in the dark of night, where witnesses would be unable to identify the the aircraft involved. And Pakistan "acknowledges that it sometimes receives technical help from Americans". And the U.S. operates out of numerous airbases, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And the Predator UAV has IR day/night capability, carries the Hellfire missile, has a range of 450 miles, and was deployed to the Afghanistan theatre in October of 2001. Hmmm...I wonder, Who Killed Cock Robin?
--Boot Hill
Absurd!!!
;-)
Back in the day, SOP was for the foreign jihadists to arrive in Pakistan and be greeted by handlers in Peshawar (or other cities, but Peshawar was the main one), and gradually processed and evaluated at guest houses constructed for the purpose. There was quite a bit of indoctrination along in here too, the line between madrassa and guest house was and is thin.
Next step was to be sorted into ability groups and sent to training camps along both sides of the border. On successful completion, they would be rotated into the field, sometimes on the front lines of the Afghan Mujahideen-Soviet War, for a period of three weeks to three months, and then back to the guest houses in Pakistan for rest and more indoctrination.
Those who proved themselves on the battlefield, by foreign jihadist standards, (the Afghans generally viewed their fighting abilities with contempt), were assigned to other camps for additional higher order training, and back into the field, for the cycle to begin anew.
In the course of the downtime and training time, many of the foreign jihadists formed relationships with local Pakistanis, families, and presumably girls. Keep in mind that these jihadists were engaged in fighting a superpower on behalf of Islam, and in general, were looked upon as heroes by the Pakistani tribesmen they were living amongst.
After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, many of these foreign militants stayed in the region and settled down.
Those remaining can be divided into two main subgroups. One, foreign jihadists still under contract to Afghan warlords or extremist Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda, and two, new settlers looking to raise a family.
After political resistance began to mount during the Pak offensive against foreign militants in March of this year, it was decided to attempt a political process to distinguish between these two types of leftover jihadists, a part of which included a photo database, checkpoints, and registration.
The underlying assumption was that the peaceful settlers wouldn't mind being registered, especially since doing so would allow them to bypass several days of incarceration and investigation on attempting to pass a checkpoint.
Nek Mohammed, closely affiliated with the still militarily active jihadists agreed to this process to gain official pardon, then changed his mind and spoke out against registration.
Either the peaceful ex-jihadists were intimidated by the militant ones, or else no peaceful ex-jihadists exist, as none registered.
Hence the current operation.
It is my belief that the current offensives began as hasty attacks, as opposed to the deliberate execution of the master plan. Patrols stumbled onto a few jihadists in the course of preparing for a major government offensive. Some were killed and some were captured.
The militants responded by attacking checkpoints at at Torwam Bridge, north of Tiarza in the Shakai valley, and at or near Inzar Narai, which is roughly due north of Faloosha and north west of Wana. The militants occupied the checkpoints for s short period, before Pak maneuver and fire support killed them or drove them off.
Within 24 hours, the major operation was underway, perhaps ahead of schedule, but if so, only by a few days.
Current Pak troop dispositions form a three sided box, open side facing west as follows, Miram Shah south to Wana, and from both towns west to the border with Afghanistan, where the Coalition troops form the fourth side of the box.
It is not currently clear to me whether the Wana-Miram Shah link-up has been completed. Advances from both towns to the west have covered suffucient distance, against presumably heavier resistance, to have completed the perimeter, but there has been no official or speculative reporting that place Pak units much south of Miram Shah, or north of the pass above the Shakai valley.
The area enclosed by the perimeter is comprised of the Shawal Mountain District, a loose ring of rugged ridgelines surrounding a central valley, with the western ridgeline largely comprising the Pak-Afghan border. A search of the term "Shawal" plus relevant terrorist terminology (try "Al Qaeda") will yield additional pertinent information as to the disposition and intent of the militants perhaps still in the area.
Without speculating as to future Pak intentions, I would note that their stated objective has always been to cleanse the tribal areas of foreign militants. I would also note that early descriptions of Operation Mountain Storm from Public Affairs at Baghram included the phrase "Hammer and Anvil".
I would hesitate to expand further on these operations, in fact I am uncomfortable in laying out this much in a public forum. However, all of the above information has been released to the open source media by official Pak military and political leaders, on multiple instances, so I can only conclude that it is their intent to distribute this information.
Nonsense. He is merely pining for the fjords.
For the most part I agree.
There is always the mathematical possibility that the tribes, valuing their previous autonomous freedoms, will recognize that certain minimum performance is the price of that freedom and embrace change.
They have not been quick to do this, and I suspect they will lose those freedoms forever.
Fully purging the lawless regions on both side of the border may take as long as several generations.
I can't think of a better way to start than establishing large military bases at Wana, Miram Shah, Parachinar, Khost, and Orgun. The swamp that has been the porous border region will be drained, and the alligators encouraged find other accomodations.
But first, there's a particularly big nest that requires special attention.
“Nek Mohammed was tracked down by tracing an intercepted satellite phone call, a senior security official told The Associated Press...”
• “The British Broadcasting Corp. has conducted at least two phone interviews with Mohammed in the past week...”
It was not clear if the United States was involved in the effort to track Mohammed. Pakistan is thought to lack the sophisticated satellite technology necessary for such phone intercepts and acknowledges that it sometimes receives ``technical help'' from the Americans.”
“Nek Mohammed...[and] six others were killed with Mohammed in the missile strike late Thursday.”
• “The helicopter fired a missile at Mohammed's hideout near Wana...”
WOW talk about a lucky shot! The pilot really needs to go to Vegas.
One of these days the terrorist are going to realize that technology is a two edged sword.
for what its worth, Loftus and John Batchelor think we got him with the Predator.
Fully purging the lawless regions on both side of the border may take as long as several generations
At least, assuming there is not a change of government in Islamabad. Remember Musharraf been attacked twice(?) so far this year, and there are plenty of people that would love to see his head on a pike.
Interesting..
Nek gets it after talking to the Beeb....I'll be...
Interesting what this attack says about the spirit of cooperation that had to exist between British and American intelligence, the U.S. military and our pal Mushi.
I heard CNN repeating over and over today: "But Pakistan doesn't have the capability to intercept satellite telephone calls", which was nothing less than a thinly veiled message to al-Qa'ida, the Taliban and other assorted Paki Islamists to tear Mushi a new one.
--Boot Hill
It is nice to see that the BBC is good for something these days. (Well my wife does like the garden shows, and I do enjoy some of the murder mysteries - particularly a Touch of Frost. I think that was a BBC production.)
Maybe they can be encouraged to interview Zarqawi, Zawahiri, and OBL. Maybe make it a conference call.
Musharif is doing a great job. The thing is, he and the Al Saud family are probably going to kill off a third of their population in order to get things back under control. The Jihadis have been spreading for poison for way too long. While Clinton diddled in the oval office, these guys were recruiting undisturbed and growing stronger by the day.
I suspect that their satellite phone sends enough information in "headers" to the satellite (during a call), that intel would know the make, model and S/N of the phone. From that, it would be possible to track down who al-Qa'ida's favorite supplier is, break into his shop late at night, and add about three ounces of C4 to the model most popular with those dirt bags. Like the add says: Reach out and touch someone!
--Boot Hill
I remember reading a story posted here back in February/March that was about a Swiss company [the name slips me] that sold satphones that were supposedly anonymous. They were a favorite of the terrorists. The gist of the story was that the spooks somehow got a way to make some id's and that was a major step in catching KSM. I do recall the "source" of the story saying that AQ caught on to what was happening, and radically curtailed use of the phones, so revealing the "secret" was considered no problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.