http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2004/September/subcontinent_September835.xml§ion=subcontinent
Pakistan battling sophisticated, brutal Al Qaeda-linked fighters: general
(AFP)
26 September 2004
ISLAMABAD - Al Qaeda-linked fighters battling Pakistani troops along the border with Afghanistan are sophisticated and brutal combatants who carry satellite phones and mutilate their enemies' corpses, according to a profile unveiled by an army commander.
Major General Niaz Khattak, field commander in the mountainous frontier district of South Waziristan, said fighters hiding there had falsely convinced local tribes that they were waging a "jihad," or holy war, against "infidels."
In the first-ever profile presented to journalists, the general who has led several offensives against Al Qaeda-linked militants this year painted a picture of hardened, well-trained, and brutal fighters with little adherence to Islamic values.
Pakistani troops have killed some 150 Al Qaeda-linked militants in a series of offensives in South Waziristan since last October, destroying Al Qaeda sanctuaries and training camps.
Officials suspect some 600 to 700 mainly Uzbek and Chechen fighters allied to Al Qaeda are still hiding in the area out of those who fled Afghanistan in late 2001 when the Taleban were toppled.
Some of those already killed and captured had Uzbek, Turkmen and Chechen features, he said.
Khattak dismissed claims by opponents of the operation that the central Asians are veteran fighters of the 1979 to 1989 battle to oust occupying Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
"Among them are some genuine believers who may have been here during the Afghan jihad, but they are few," the general said.
"Most of them are aged 18 to 25. Where were they during the Afghan jihad?," he pointed out during a briefing to reporters in South Waziristan's main town Wana.
"They are not remnants of part of jihad against Russians, they are a new influx."
Khattak described the militants as "very advanced, educated and militarily well-trained" fighters who had overpowered local Wazir tribesmen.
"They started proving their dominance intellectually, socially, physically over the Wazirs and the Wazirs had to take them inevitably as their military leaders," he said.
The fighters eat sardines and drink canned juice, carry military maps and sophisticated military literature, suggesting they were "trained militants," the general insisted.
Inside captives' rucksacks soldiers have found, along with canned food and drinks, high quality life-saving medicines, first aid kits, compasses, binoculars, GPS (global positioning system) and Thuraya satellite phones.
"It is surely not an ordinary Wazir (local tribesman) who carries a military map that only some people can understand," Khattak said.
They also carry explosives, detonators, and clocks for timing the launches of rockets, their favoured weapon.
The foreign militants are physically strong, do a lot of exercise, and carry a lot of communications equipment.
"In the kind of attacks that they have been launching against Pakistani troops, they do not hold their positions too strongly, they are mostly on the move but they protect their bases very, very strongly," he said.
Khattak said Al Qaeda-linked militants and their local supporters had mistreated hostages and mutilated their corpses during one of the biggest Al Qaeda offensives in March.
"I have never heard of normal human beings mutilating dead bodies and cutting off their organs and doing something which is unheard of," he said.
May we always be blessed with opponents stupid enough to carry their explosives and detonators in the same rucksack!
(Take the door off a microwave oven, defeat the door safety interlock, turn the oven on, point it in the general direction of the rucksack and poof, another idiot terrorist disappears in a pretty pink spray!)
--Boot Hill
Musharaf did an interview the other day. When asked about binLaden and whether he thought he was running things out of Pakistan, Musharaf said something like, 'no, how could he? If he used a phone we'd know where he is.' Don't know what he was trying to say by that. At the time it seemed the reporter was tying to downgrade the importance of binLaden, or maybe Musharaf was. I don't know. But Musharaf was not happy with Bush's policies in Israel and with the effect that fighting in Iraq was having on muslims in the midddle east. He didn't sound firmly behind
the President.
Oct 17, 2004 07:14:00 AM
Beijing, Oct 17 (PTI) The body of Wang Peng, one of the two Chinese hostages killed in Pakistan, returned to Jinan, capital city of east China's Shandong Province late last night on board a special Pakistani military aircraft. Wang Peng, an engineer, was killed in a military operation launched by Pakistan forces Thursday to free the two Chinese hostages. Wang Ende, the rescued hostage, had returned to Beijing on Friday night.
On behalf of the Chinese government, Vice Governor of Shandong Xie Yutang extended condolence to Wang Peng and expressed sympathy for his family and for Wang Ende.
The Chinese side strongly condemned the terrorist act to kidnap hostages, Xie said, noting that governments and peoples of China and Pakistan will continue to make efforts for promoting friendly and cooperative ties between the two sides.
Pakistani ambassador to China, Riaz Mohammad Khan extended grief from the Pakistani government and people, saying that it is the crime of terrorism that caused this tragedy, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Pakistani government will ensure the security of Chinese friends there within capacity, he said.
Gunmen kidnapped Wang Ende and Wang Peng, the engineers working on a water dam and a canal in the region for the China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Group Corporation, on October 9 near Jandala in Pakistan's restive South Waziristan Tribal Agency bordering Afghanistan.
In order to deal with the aftermath of the kidnapping issue, the Chinese side had dispatched 'working teams' to Pakistan. PTI