Pakistan Plots Showdown with Taliban, AOL News, 9 March 2010
EXCERPT: "Having wrested control of one key region in Pakistan's northwest from a weakened Pakistani Taliban, the country's military leaders have announced they will launch a new operation against one of the militants' few remaining safe havens, perhaps within days. Last week's announcement that Pakistani forces had taken over the Bajur tribal agency, a longstanding Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold, was seen as the latest in a line of successes in recent months in the country's battle against Islamic militancy. But the true test will come now that the Pakistani Taliban has shifted south to the Orakzai Agency, where the militants are preparing for what some observers are calling their last stand. Sources in the region tell AOL News that thousands of Taliban and foreign fighters have gathered in that part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border. 'There are Arabs and Uzbeks here as well as Pakistanis and Afghans,' one local source reported in a telephone conversation, requesting anonymity. 'They are preparing for the Pakistani military operation.'"
Read the full story.
Related articles:
US doubts Islamabad's will to pursue militants, Financial Times, 9 March 2010
Finally a Taliban crackdown, Brookings, 9 March 2010
Related posts:
Army captures key militant hideout, 2 March 2010
Bajaur Agency: The new landscape of insurgency in FATA, 15 February 2010
Northwest turns volatile following suicide attack, Bajaur offensive, 1 February 2010
Militants regroup in northwest, army responds, 27 November 2009
Countering militancy in FATA, 26 October 2009
