'Full-fledged' assault on top Taliban chief
Seven-week campaign in Swat Valley region
Akhtar Soomro, ReutersMillions of Pakistanis have been forced from their homes since the fight with the Taliban heated up seven weeks ago. Pakistani security forces have launched a "full-fledged" assault on the Taliban's top chief in the country and his rebels in the lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, an official said yesterday.
The announcement of operations in the semi-autonomous northwest zone comes shortly after a bomb killed eight people near the area, the latest in a series of blasts the government has blamed on most-wanted militant Baitullah Mehsud.
Security forces are already locked in a seven-week campaign against the insurgents in three other northwest districts, and a recent wave of deadly attacks are widely seen as Taliban retribution for the fierce offensive.
"The government has launched a full-fledged operation in the tribal areas including Waziristan," Owais Ahmad Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), told a press conference in Islamabad.
"Operations will continue until the elimination of the militants."
Pakistan's military had already said it had bombed militant hideouts in South Waziristan, but Mr. Ghani's announcement is the first official confirmation of the opening up of a second front.
In its daily briefing yesterday, the military confirmed that 30 suspected militants were killed in strikes in South Waziristan a day earlier.
The rugged tribal region is a stronghold of Mehsud, head of umbrella Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Washington alleges that Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists are in Waziristan plotting attacks on Western targets.
"We have ordered all the law enforcing agencies to start a full-fledged operation against Baitullah Mehsud and his followers," said Mr. Ghani.
"These are the people who are responsible for all of the bombing, terrorism, (and) killing of innocent people."
A spokesman for Mehsud has claimed that TTP were behind a string of deadly attacks on civilians in Pakistan in recent weeks.
In the latest attack, militants remotely detonated explosives hidden in a rickshaw at a busy Sunday market in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, with eight people killed and dozens injured, police and hospital officials said.
Dera Ismail Khan is about 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of the provincial capital Peshawar, where a commando-style suicide gun and bomb attack killed nine people at the luxury Pearl Continental hotel on Tuesday.
Also yesterday, a suspected missile strike by a U. S. drone aircraft targeting Islamist extremists killed at least three people in South Waziristan.
"A drone attack targeting a militant vehicle killed three people in Mardar Algad area," said Amir Mohammad Khan, a local administration official.
The U. S. military does not confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the CIA operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.
Pakistan publicly opposes drone attacks, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace.
Security forces launched their offensive against Taliban fighters across three northwestern districts near Swat valley on April 26, after the insurgents advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad.
The offensive has the support of the United States, which has put Pakistan at the heart of its strategy to fight Al-Qaeda.
An unnamed senior U. S. defence official said on Friday that a strategy in the tribal belt would work best with pressure on militants from both sides of the border.
The announcement of operations in the semi-autonomous northwest zone comes shortly after a bomb killed eight people near the area, the latest in a series of blasts the government has blamed on most-wanted militant Baitullah Mehsud.
Security forces are already locked in a seven-week campaign against the insurgents in three other northwest districts, and a recent wave of deadly attacks are widely seen as Taliban retribution for the fierce offensive.
"The government has launched a full-fledged operation in the tribal areas including Waziristan," Owais Ahmad Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), told a press conference in Islamabad.
"Operations will continue until the elimination of the militants."
Pakistan's military had already said it had bombed militant hideouts in South Waziristan, but Mr. Ghani's announcement is the first official confirmation of the opening up of a second front.
In its daily briefing yesterday, the military confirmed that 30 suspected militants were killed in strikes in South Waziristan a day earlier.
The rugged tribal region is a stronghold of Mehsud, head of umbrella Taliban group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Washington alleges that Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists are in Waziristan plotting attacks on Western targets.
"We have ordered all the law enforcing agencies to start a full-fledged operation against Baitullah Mehsud and his followers," said Mr. Ghani.
"These are the people who are responsible for all of the bombing, terrorism, (and) killing of innocent people."
A spokesman for Mehsud has claimed that TTP were behind a string of deadly attacks on civilians in Pakistan in recent weeks.
In the latest attack, militants remotely detonated explosives hidden in a rickshaw at a busy Sunday market in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, with eight people killed and dozens injured, police and hospital officials said.
Dera Ismail Khan is about 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of the provincial capital Peshawar, where a commando-style suicide gun and bomb attack killed nine people at the luxury Pearl Continental hotel on Tuesday.
Also yesterday, a suspected missile strike by a U. S. drone aircraft targeting Islamist extremists killed at least three people in South Waziristan.
"A drone attack targeting a militant vehicle killed three people in Mardar Algad area," said Amir Mohammad Khan, a local administration official.
The U. S. military does not confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the CIA operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.
Pakistan publicly opposes drone attacks, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace.
Security forces launched their offensive against Taliban fighters across three northwestern districts near Swat valley on April 26, after the insurgents advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad.
The offensive has the support of the United States, which has put Pakistan at the heart of its strategy to fight Al-Qaeda.
An unnamed senior U. S. defence official said on Friday that a strategy in the tribal belt would work best with pressure on militants from both sides of the border.
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