Twirp: Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 5

[ramana]

From Night watch, 10/20/09

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Operation Rah-e-Hijat in South Waziristan Update.</b> 

The army killed 20 Taliban on the fourth day of Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan, the military said on Tuesday, as troops intensified the battle for control of Kotkai.

An exceptionally reputable and well informed McClatchy correspondent, a native Pakistani, provided a very different version of the fighting at Kotkai in South Waziristan. As reported in the Miami Herald.  Saeed Shah reported,

<i>
Taliban guerrillas recaptured the birthplace of the Pakistani Taliban leader( Hakimullah Mehsud)  from the Pakistan Army Tuesday, inflicting the heaviest military losses so far in Pakistan's high-stakes offensive in South Waziristan….Taliban militants attacked Pakistani forces and recaptured the strategic town of Kotkai, Reuters reported Oct. 20. Security officials said government forces captured Kotkai but militants struck back to retake it. An intelligence official said seven soldiers including a major and several Taliban were killed in the fighting. Another intelligence official said jets bombed Taliban positions in and around Kotkai after the militant counterattack.</i>

<b>This report suggests that one of the three prongs of the Pakistan Army offensive got sucked into an ambush. Shah’s report and the Army statement are the first credible and congruent reports of a serious engagement.  The Army got bested today,</b> reminiscent of Musharraf’s campaign in North Waziristan.

McClatchy’s Shah also reported that <b>government attempts to enlist the aid of Mahsud tribesmen were rejected by the tribal elders. The Mahsuds understand this is a punitive campaign. In other words, the deeper the Pakistan Army units move into South Waziristan, the greater is their danger of massacre, but for over-watch by the Pakistan Air Force.</b>  This “all out campaign” is faltering after four days, probably because it is far from an all out campaign.
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Wonder if farsis will provide means to take out a few Fizzle ya birds.