A war of words erupted in Pakistan’s tribal belt on Thursday as pro-government tribal commanders fired verbal salvoes against the embattled Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud while the army pressed ahead with its plans to invade his South Waziristan lair.
Qari Zainuddin, a fellow Mehsud tribesmen who has risen from obscurity in recent months, accused the warlord of being an Indian and Israeli agent.
“He is working against Islam,” he told Geo television.
Another commander, Turkistan Bhittani, launched a more fanciful slur - that Baitullah, who has a US$5 million US government bounty on his head, is in the secret employ of Washington.
The comments underscored the tangled web of jihadi politics and personalities facing Pakistan’s army as it prepares for a battle that could determine the future of Pakistan. They came as missiles fired from what is thought to have been a US drone were reported to have killed nine militants in South Waziristan.
Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan’s largest Taliban grouping, has become the country’s top hate figure for launching suicide attacks and allegedly orchestrating the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
His mountainous stronghold is also home to hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters, possibly including Osama bin Laden, although most experts believe he is hiding further north in the tribal belt.
Fresh from its success in Swat, where the Taliban have been driven from the main towns, the Pakistani army hopes to isolate Mehsud in South Waziristan through a combination of military strikes and alliances with friendly tribal commanders.
The newly aggressive approach has won generous praise from a previously sceptical US government. But while tribal allies such as Zainuddin oppose Mehsud, they also support al-Qaeda and fight Western troops in Afghanistan.
“We have reservations that this is going to work,” said a senior Western diplomat in Islamabad.
The operation has unofficially started, with troops imposing an economic blockade on Mehsud territory, sealing off approach roads and rounding up supporters. Helicopters and warplanes have pounded targets in Janni Khel district on the fringe of Waziristan.
Anwar Kamal Marwat, a tribal leader from the nearby district of Lakki Marwat, witnessed the violence.
“There was no hand to hand fighting. It was all artillery and air attacks,” he said.
Women and children fleeing the fighting had been permitted to shelter in his area, a traditional courtesy in tribal warfare.
The Mehsud campaign is likely to be far tougher, and bloodier, than the six-week Swat operation.
“It will be long, and too many people will die on both sides,” said Sailab Mehsud, a veteran local journalist.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
REVELRY ON HOLD: Students marched in Belgrade amid New Year’s events, saying that ‘there is nothing to celebrate’ after the train station tragedy killed 15 Thousands of students marched in Belgrade and two other Serbian cities during a New Year’s Eve protest that went into yesterday, demanding accountability over the fatal collapse of a train station roof in November. The incident in the city of Novi Sad occurred on Nov. 1 at a newly renovated train facility, killing 14 people — aged six to 74 — at the scene, while a 15th person died in hospital weeks later. Public outrage over the tragedy has sparked nationwide protests, with many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight of construction projects. In Belgrade, university students marched through the capital
RSS