| Insurgents block highway in S.Waziristan amid arrival of new troops |
|
WANA: Unidentified insurgents have blocked Shahrah-e-Makeen, which goes from Zarmak to Ladah for all kinds of traffic. 
http://www.geo.tv/main_files/pakistan.aspx?id=40076
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 ...
"Someone tipped them off, maybe they escaped to Afghanistan."
Pretty sure I mentioned a long while back that the fat lady couldn't sing until there was a Pak troop standing on the border shaking hands with an American troop every twenty five yards.
Within the North and South Waziristan regions, this is now within the realm of possibility for all points south of Mangrotai and north of Nawe Kot.
The overriding goal has always been to deny the enemy the trade routes and sanctuary of these border regions. That at least some enemy forces are still in the area is evidenced by the continued attacks on Coalition troops.
But the areas where they can live and attack with impugnity are now confined to those adjacent to a stretch of border less than 25 miles long, as compared to more than 100 miles of border at the beginning of Operation Mountain Storm.
The area enclosed by the Pak lines has shrunk from more than 1500 square miles since the Paks first closed the perimeter, to less than 400 square miles currently, but most importantly, the Pak army is now inside the Shawal, not just on the ridgeline, but down on the valley floor, operating, so far, without resistance, and now with easy access to all but a small part of the region unencumbered by easily defended ridgelines.
http://users.in-motion.net/~jefft/tech/Mapping/afghanistan/paklines_sm.jpg
Short and sweet...the wolves are in the fold.
We're IN.
"as far as we are concerned, we have granted a visit by South African officials."
"You may call it whatever kind of access you want to. "
"Asked whether visits would be allowed in future, Khattak said: "This is not something we would call a regular feature."
General reminder.......Don't expect much if you're locked up in Pakistan.
Unfortunately I don't think OBL and his evil deputy are anywhere in the vicinity. (Although I'd love to be proven wrong!)
Just as much as the next guy, I'd like to see Bin Laden's scraggley beard parted by a slug from a Barrett sniper rifle, and I agree, that's simply not likely to happen as a result of Operation Mountain Storm.
But that in no way lessens the strategic significance of this operation. With the loss of the Afghan-Pakistan border regions, not only does Al Qaeda lose their longest standing basing, training, and logistical areas, along with more than two decades of infrastructure and political infiltration, the loss of the tribal areas demonstrates that there is literally no teritory on earth that they can defend on a long term basis.
Cracking the Shawal Valley has proven impossible in the past, both for the British Empire, and for the Soviet Union. In fact, there is historical support for the idea that the mere failed attempt led to breaking the backs of both empires.
Although it's quite a bit too early to declare total victory, it is my belief that the writing is now on the wall, and any Al Qaeda stronghold in the Shawal is doomed to fall. Even one week ago, I was not able to make such a claim with any confidence based on concrete reality. Between the dense forests and the rugged high elevation terrain, the loyalty of the independent and ferocious tribesmen, the Shawal is instantly reminiscent of Vietnam, a place where even our own military was not permitted to achieve decisive victory.
When it comes, success in Waziristan will not be measured in terms of high value targets captured or killed, but instead, is the first concrete and real expression of Reagan's lofty promise to the terrorists, "no place to run, no place to hide". Talk is easy, talk is cheap, but this is more than talk. We're in there, digging them out valley by valley, pushing them back any time they choose to stand and fight, into a smaller and smaller corner.
The Paks aren't on a temporary field exercise, they are setting out roots and digging in to stay in the long term. The swamp isn't just being drained, the sentries are taking up permanent residence, changing both the military and political balance in a region long held by some of the best armies in history to be impossible to conquor.
The benefit doesn't stop there, either. Perhaps the main advantage of the safe houses scattered from Karachi to Peshawar is their very proximity to the porous border region, a sort of a get out of jail, home free, passport to another sovereign country, under the control of a different government, whose orders are carried out by a different chain of command, if you will, a secret tunnel by which those who would do us harm can disappear underground, only to emerge out of the backountry into a different civilization, unlikely to be followed, or even have to worry about the chance of being followed. It is no man's land, but it will not be no man's land for much longer. In the process,g its submission sends the unmistakable message that there are no places on earth where such sanctuary will be possible in the long run.
As for individual targets, the first stage is denying them places like the tribal belts where they can go to ground, rest up, refit and plan new offensives. In breaking up such a haven, they forced from the pocket, forced to adopt on the run thinking and procedures, and their vulnerability increases by orders of magnitude during these evictions, as we saw when Ghailani was captured after fleeing this very place.
Who is to say that there aren't any more prizes dug into the remaining valleys and ridgelines? The best and most defensible terrain remains unexplored to date. All that has changed is that there are no longer any significant terrain obstacles between us and the enemy. Except in the engagements already fought, none of our combat superiority has actually been brought to bear in face to face battle, but now it can be, we can use mass, momentum and overwhelming violence with out the fear of being cut off and defeated piecemeal by isolated pockets enemy resistance. Instead of having to bide our time and wait for the enemy's initiative to bring him within arms reach, we now force battle on our terms, when we decide, pitting our unlimited resources against the enemy's dwindling reserves. The momentum has shifted, and the leaders may have fled or are packing up to leave as this is written, but there's no guarantee they have safely escaped the valley yet. As a matter of fact...in one of the recently posted reports....well, you can read a map as well as I can, no need to make certain things obvious just yet.
The fat lady has yet to sing. All that has changed is that now we know she will sing, before the snow closes the high passes this winter.
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/11/top8.htm
"Six militants, three armymen killed
By Dawn Report
WANA, Sept 10: Six militants and three army men, including a captain, were killed in a pre-dawn encounter on Friday in South Waziristan.
Official sources in Peshawar confirmed the army casualty in the clash with militants in Karwan Manza, about 72km from here. Two army jawans were wounded.
The dead and the wounded were first taken to the Government High School in Kanigoram and later flown to the army brigade headquarters in Wana. Local
tribesmen, however, put the army casualties at seven, including Captain Suhail, but Director-General of ISPR, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, said the figure was less than
seven. "There have been casualties but the figure is less than seven," he told Dawn.
A anonymous caller claiming to speak on behalf of a tribal commander told Dawn that the 'mujahideen' had captured 43 soldiers in the late-night clashes and
threatened that they would start executing them if the military did not cease its operations in the area.
Gen Sultan, however, rejected the claim. "This is all rubbish. Not a single soldier is missing or has been captured. These are all lies," he maintained. A security official
said the regiment to which the 'captured' soldiers reportedly belonged was not operating in the South Waziristan region. "This is all ridiculous," he said.
The 'mujahideen' spokesperson said the Thursday bombing by Air Force jets had left 70 people dead, and among them only eight were 'mujahideen'. "The rest were
civilians from local villages. There were women and children among them," he added.
Earlier, speaking at a press briefing in Peshawar, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan denied that there were any civilian casualties in the Thursday raid on a terrorist training
camp.
"This is an explicit statement. There were no civilian casualties. No women or children have been killed in the operation," Gen Sultan said while responding to a
question. "There has been no collateral damage," he insisted.
The ISPR chief reiterated that among the 50 dead in the Thursday bombing, most were foreign militants. "If there were any locals, they were those who have been
equally involved in terrorist activities. There is no question of them being innocent," he added.
He said he had a video of the training facility taken by planes shortly before the area was hit by a barrage of what he described precision-guided bombs that showed
people receiving training.
"I have seen the video and it is so clear that one can even count the people on the ground," he claimed. He however, declined to show the video to the press, saying
that it would be released at an 'appropriate time'.
The 'mujahideen' spokesman, however, denied the existence of any training camp in Bad Awaz Garang in Kiakhel. "There had been no training camp there. There
was a mosque and a hujra and when the attack took place we all were sitting there," he said.
The security official told Dawn that a wanted Al Qaeda operative, Saiful Adel Al-Iraqi, and an Uzbek militant leader, Tahir Yaldashev, were reported to have been
visiting the camp.
It, however, could not be known whether they were present there at the time of the attack. The ISPR spokesman said nobody from Al Qaeda's 'top hierarchy' was
present at the camp when it was bombed.
Gen Sultan said among the six militants killed in the late-night clashes, five were confirmed foreigners, while the body of a local tribesman had been handed over to his
family for burial.
An official in Peshawar said that among the five killed, two were Uzbeks, while one looked like an Arab. The identity of two others was being ascertained. He also
that the security forces had captured five foreign militants whose nationalities were being ascertained.
The official reiterated the government's offer of amnesty to local and foreign militants if they renounced militancy and surrendered to the authorities for registration and
furnished guarantees to live peacefully.
He warned that no suicide or any other terrorist attack could deter the government from eliminating terrorism from Pakistani soil. "We are determined to eliminate
terrorism from Pakistan," he said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Wana dynamited a two-floor market owned by a leading tribal notable to punish him for creating discord among tribesmen over cooperation
with the government and inciting people against the government.
Malik Baa Khan's brother Malik Ghaneem Khan told Dawn that the government had punished his brother for meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The tribal
elder, Malik Ghaneem said, had gone to persuade the Afghan authorities to ask Pakistan to call off the operation in return for a pledge by the tribesmen that they
would not allow any attacks against Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, reports last night spoke of a fresh round of clashes between militants and security forces in Bazai near the Ludda sub-division. The security forces are
reported to have seized a high ground that has put them in an advantageous position against the militants. The authorities have summoned Abdullai Mehsud tribesmen
for a meeting on Saturday to discuss a plan on dealing with militants in the area. "
Once again, "Bazai" is a common Pak name for villages, most of which lie outside the AO, a pattern I no longer find coincidental. No matter, if those in charge of the operation choose to distribute dis-information, it is a clear indication that the specifics remain sensitive in terms of operational security, and I prefer not to speculate on this type thing until an ongoing battle has concluded.
That the wounded are being brought out through Kaniguram, located on the SE Quadrant map, tells me enough to fill in the blanks on my own as to where the action is taking place and what the objectives might be. The official announcement of the Paks taking of "high ground" is of course tantalizing, in that there are many viable possibilities, but for now, we'll just have to wait as the continuing series of engagements develops further for updates.
One more detail per The Times, large military column on the move from Jandola to Ludha.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_11-9-2004_pg1_3
Agree. Certainly didn't mean to imply that.
| Insurgents block highway in S.Waziristan amid arrival of new troops |
|
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/12/top3.htm
Wana dead included 25 local militants
By Dilawar Khan Wazir
WANA, Sept 11: About 25 victims, who were killed in an airstrike on Budawaz Garang in the Luddah sub-division in the troubled South Waziristan region, were identified as local tribal militants and common tribesmen on Saturday.
About 50 people had been killed when PAF aircraft and gunships bombed a suspected militant training facility in the area on Thursday morning.
Residents confirmed that so far six bodies of children, including four students, had been recovered from the site of the bombing. They took their bodies after identification in the Luddah Fort on Saturday.
Two bodies had been identified as Minhajuddin, 14, son of Faqir Muhammad, who was a student of 7th class; and Shehsawar Khan, 12, son of Musa, a student of class 5 in government middle school in Shinkai.
After the identification, authorities handed over their bodies to elders of Luddah sub-division.
Apart from these four students, two other schoolgoing children, who had fallen prey to Thursday's airstrikes, were buried in Wana, the regional headquarters.
Witnesses said that local people had retrieved decomposed bodies from the debris as many of them were beyond recognition. They were buried in a mass grave in the area.
Funeral prayers for 25 victims were held amid high tension. A small number of people turned up to attend the funerals due to fear of airstrikes and closure of roads leading to the area.
The injured people could not be shifted to hospitals in Wana as the authorities had blocked all roads, restricting movement of tribesmen in these areas. Most of the injured were provided treatment at local level.
Army spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan claimed that there were no civilians casualties in the airstrikes. He said: "If there were any locals, they were those who have been equally involved in terrorist activities."
The three-day clashes have left more than 72 people, including 14 security personnel, dead whereas the number of wounded people is yet to be confirmed.
Some wounded tribesmen being shifted to hospitals in other areas, were taken into custody by members of law-enforcement agencies and they were taken to a military hospital in Wana.
The locals also hesitated taking the injured to hospital for fear of arrests and preferred to treat the injured at their houses, reports suggest.
Tension is running high in Wana and other parts of the South Waziristan as PAF jets and gunships were flying over the region throughout the day.
Meanwhile, the authorities claimed that two military convoys had reached the Karwan Manza and taken control of the area. No resistance from the militants in the area was reported.
According to sources, law-enforcement agencies also held talks with a local leader of the militants, Abdullah Mahsud, to give a safe passage to military troops on their way to Makeen sub-division from Wana on the border between the South and North Waziristan Agencies.
The Makeen bazaar having 1500 to 2000 shops remained closed for the third consecutive day as the people feared a fresh military action.
However, the tribal leader expressed his inability to prevail upon the militants to stop attacks on the military convoys moving in the area.
On Friday night, three rockets were fired at a fort in the Sarwekai subdivision, but no casualties were reported.
NORTH WAZIRISTAN: An official of the Military Intelligence and a soldier were wounded when militants opened fire on a vehicle in mountainous Shawal region on Friday night, our correspondent Pazir Gul adds from Miramshah.
Official sources said that the firing incident took place in Shawal, about 90 kilometres west of Miramshah, the administrative headquarters.
The wounded official has been identified as Major Qamar, who was shifted to a military hospital in South Waziristan. His condition was stated to be serious.
Reports said that the government was sending more reinforcements to the Datakhel area near the Afghan border. The security forces have occupied the only health care centre in the area and also school buildings to be used as their base stations. The occupation of the centre has deprived a large population of health care facility in the remote area.
Troops Kill Six Militants : WANA, Sep 12: Troops killed six militants in clashes early today in Kani Guram near the Afghan border where al-Qaida-linked fighters are believed to be
hiding, the army said. The fighting began after militants attacked security forces around midnight in Kani Guram, said army spokesman Brig. Shahjehan Ali Khan. Khan said that based on
reports from the scene, six militants were killed but the bodies hadn't been retrieved yet and it wasn't known whether they were foreigners or local tribesmen. Both sides were using mortars,
rockets and small arms, Khan said. Residents reported hearing artillery and gunfire since dawn in another area near Kani Guram. Khan denied a newspaper report today that civilians were
killed in the raid on the training camp. (AP/AFP) (Posted @ 16:40 PST)
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/12/welcome.htm
Scouts camp attacked in Sarokai area
WANA: Tribesmen on Saturday blocked the Makeen-Razmak highway which connects Razmak to Laddah and were reportedly planning to take control of major highways to block the movement of troops in north and south Waziristan.
Meanwhile, militants attacked a Scouts camp in the Sarokai area with rockets in the morning but there was no loss of life or property. At 1:00am, militants fired 20 rockets at a fort in Sarokai sub-division where paramilitary forces are stationed, residents told Daily Times on the phone. Residents said that the militants also fired rockets at the tehsil building.
The paramilitary forces returned fire but the militants had fled by the time. Sources said tribesmen in the Makeen area were moving to safer places as they feared a possible clash between militants and those who supported the army’s deployment in the area. “Anything can happen in the present conflict. Therefore it is better to stay away from the troubled area,” said a resident. Sources said militants were trying to block the Jandola-Laddah highway and another route linking Mushai to Dilla and Karwan Manzai. But military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan denied that the situation had changed.
Sources said the troops were still in control of the Wana-Laddah and Wana-Jandola highways. Sources said more troops had arrived in the Makeen area and residents had closed their shops and were preparing to flee the area. Helicopters hovered overhead in the Laddah and Khanigurram areas throughout the day, sources said. A major and a soldier were injured when a military vehicle was ambushed in the Shawal area, military sources in Miranshah told Daily Times. They were airlifted to Wana.
Islamabad staff report adds: South Waziristan parliamentarians on Saturday demanded the establishment of an independent commission to reveal the truth about ongoing military operations in the tribal areas.
“Inter Services Public Relations Director General Major General Shaukat Sultan is not telling the nation the facts,” said Maulana Mirajuddin, a member of the National Assembly (MNA) from South Waziristan, at a news conference.
He said area MNAs demanded an independent commission, which should include treasury and opposition parliamentarians and journalists, to investigate the truth about the military’s operations in South Waziristan. “We will also hold a long march from South Waziristan to Islamabad,” he said. “The Pakistan Army is killing innocent citizens in South Waziristan and claiming that foreigners were killed during operations. That is factually wrong,” he said, referring to a recent air strike on a training camp in which the military says it killed 50 militants, most of them foreign.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-9-2004_pg7_12
Six significant engagements recent or ongoing, not counting the airstrikes on the terrorist training camp from a few days back, and the overnight rocket attacks in Sarwekai.
1. 6 enemy KIA and 3 Pak KIA from a three day ongoing battle west of Kaniguram.
2. Enemy currently holding the Ladha-Razmak road north of Tauda China.
3. Enemy attempting to take the Jandola-Razmak road, with rumored plans to take all the major roads in the area in protest of the airstrikes on the terrorist training camp last week. MMA has also threatened jihad over this incident.
4. Unspecified fighting north of Razmak at the North/South Waziristan border.
5. Continuing convoy ambushes in the Shawal Algad area.
6. Overnight firefight with mortars and artillery in Kaniguram.
Also the Pak Army in moving reinforcements into the Ladha area from Jandola, if they manage to get through.
I put up a new map at:
http://users.in-motion.net/~jefft/tech/Mapping/afghanistan/index.html
Scroll down to "Kaniguram 9/12/2004" under "Significant Engagements".
26 soldiers killed, 70 wounded in clashes near Afghan border: ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: At least 26 soldiers were killed and 70 others injured today as fierce clashes continued in
Pakistan's South Waziristan region. According to witnesses in the region's administrative centre, Wana, all the doctors in the town's civil hospital have been summoned to the paramilitary
headquarters to nurse the wounded military personnel. Local tribesmen told Deutsche Presse Agentur, dpa that they saw several military vehicles rushing wounded soldiers into the highly
guarded militia building where a hospital was situated. Reports said witnesses saw bombing and cross fire between the government forces and local and alleged foreign militants in
different areas of the tribal region that borders with Afghanistan's Paktika province. Clashes erupted early Sunday when militants seized control of government bunkers in Karwan Manz
northwest of Wana. (DPA) (Posted @ 23:55 PST)
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/12/welcome.htm
It is heating up!
thanks for new maps
"But that in no way lessens the strategic significance of this operation.
Agree. Certainly didn't mean to imply that."
I know you didn't, but I just didn't want to run the risk of someone taking it that way. As Adm Smith says, it's heating up. No time to turn the channel now.
Nuconvert, glad you find it useful. Some of the locations on the engagements are approximate. The bad guys could have tried to take the Jandola-Ladha road anywhere along the length of it. I'm guessing some of these miscreants are on the run from the terrorist camp, and others may be tribesmen, angry over the civilian casualties.
The firefights west of Kaniguram are iffy too. I know they're fighting over there, and it has to be somewhere along one of those two drainages or else it wouldn't make sense to evac the wounded through Kaniguram, but there's no word on how close the fighting is to the passes over the main ridge.
That map will probably see updates over the next few days as more information comes in.
Using reports from old British battles in the area, I finally located Makin (Makeen). Per one report an advance up the Tank Zam river passed through Makin before reaching Ladha, and according to another report, troops moving south from Razmak to Ladha passed through Makin along the way, which places it on the Razmak-Ladha road at the Tank Zam river crossing.
I'm still not sure exactly what Makin is, though it is the centroid of the Mahsud tribe, and the location of a bazaar/market. It does not show up under any geographical name search as a village, so it may be an area name, with a bazaar in a village of a different name that is called the Makin bazaar. If so, the most likely village would be Tauda China Algad.
I also narrowed the rage of probable locations for "Raghzai" that has been referred to recently. Overnight there were rocket attacks in "Nora Raghzai", which turns out to be Narai Raghzai and which is located 3.43 km ESE of Raghzai Killi on the Kaniguram 9/12/2004 map.
This map has been updated to include overnight engagements, ongoing firefights in Ladha, Kaniguram, Razmak, Shawal, Tiarza, Wana (Zari Noor Scout Camp), and Tauda China. The file name and legend on the maps homepage still refer to 9/12/2004, because editing the HTML for the homepage is very much a pain, but the map now reflects the situation as of 9/13/2004.
It is at:
http://users.in-motion.net/~jefft/tech/Mapping/afghanistan/Kaniguram_09122004.jpg
Two other bits of significant data obtained this morning:
1. "Shawal" as referred to in recent reports, may not be a village at all. From a month old news report, "Rockets were fired over Shawal Scouts Camp and landed on the lawn of the Razmak College". Due to the relatively short range of the rockets in use, in this and similar reports, it appears that "Shawal" refers to an area very close to Razmak, not the village of Shawal Algad.
2. On the SE Quadrant map, west of Ladha about two thirds of the distance to Pir Ghar appears a village named Larima. Per a first hand report from the net, a journalist on an expedition to research the religious significance of mountaintops summitted Pir Ghar by foot trail without using rope or technical climbing equipment. He travelled to Ladha from Jandola over a blacktop road, and thence to Larima via jeep over a dirt road. In addition to giving perhaps broad insight as to how deep into the various drainages jeep travel is customary, it is also noteworthy to be aware that a shrine has been constructed atop Pir Ghar for the sacrifice of black goats before and after concieving and delivering children. As this is a semi-required religious custom in the area, the mountaintop must be then easily accessible. Prior to receiving this report, I was aware that the main ridgeline there was theoretically accessible due to it's slope characteristics, now it is assured that the ridgeline is frequently accessed, quite a different thing.
In terms of political ramifications, it is distinctly possible that the majority of the current fighting is due more to the Masud tribe's reaction to the civilian casualties incurred during the terrorist training camp airstrikes than to Al Qaeda per se, but the Al Qaeda component cannot be entirely discounted due to the capture of Chechen and Arab militants over the last few days.
In addition to the possibility that the tribal uprising may continue and escalate, it may be possible for Al Qaeda personnel to escape the perimeter established by the Pak army, eastward into greater Pakistan, a 'breakout', if you will, possibly intended, possibly merely an unexpected opportunity.
Continued armed resistence on the part of the Masud tribe will raise the difficulty of additional tightening of the perimeter, including future advances into the Shawal Valley proper.
"I'm still not sure exactly what Makin is"
Hmmm......people seem to pass right thru it...... :~ )
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