Pakistan strikes back at Taliban strongholds
- Source: Global Times
- [09:32 October 14 2009]
- Comments
By Hao Zhou
Pakistani fighter jets bombed militants Tuesday in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border as government forces prepare for a ground offensive against the militant hub, security officials said.
The government said most attacks in the country, including four big ones over the past week that killed more than 100 people, were plotted in South Waziristan, the main bastion of the Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban and its allies.
The Pakistan Army claimed success in an offensive against the Taliban earlier this year in the one-time tourist paradise of Swat Valley, but a surging wave of attacks in the past week showed that the Islam extremist threat is far from quashed.
"The leadership of the Pakistani Taliban is newly reorganized after former leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US missile strike in August," said Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asia studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
"The new leadership is showing that its power hasn't decreased in the US-Pakistan joint attacks," he said. "Moreover, they are taking preemptive actions in response to a new round of government operations in South Waziristan."
The UN held a memorial service Tuesday in Pakistan for five staff members killed when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated explosives October 5 in the heavily fortified World Food Program office in Islamabad, AFP reported.
