Pakistani PM: Anti-Taliban Offensive in South Waziristan is Over
Sean Maroney 12 December 2009
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says the military operation targeting Taliban militants based in the South Waziristan tribal region is now over.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters Saturday that the anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan is over after nearly two months.
He says the military is now focusing on the nearby Orakzai tribal region in order to chase the Pakistani Taliban leadership that is believed to have fled there from South Waziristan. There recently have been heavy artillery and air strikes in the area.
Security analyst and former security chief of the tribal regions, Mahmood Shah, tells VOA that he is not surprised Pakistan chose first to strike at the heart of the militancy based in South Waziristan.
"If the army [had gone] into Orakzai agency and not [South] Waziristan, there would have been an impression that probably the army is scared of not going into [South] Waziristan, which is the root [of the militancy]," he said.
Military officials say more than 600 Taliban militants and some 80 soldiers have been killed in the operation near the Afghan border.
These numbers have not been independently verified because, except for a few military-organized trips, the military has largely closed the area to journalists and aid agencies.
The United Nations says thousands of people have fled the region.
Pakistan has blamed the Pakistani Taliban for a series of high profile attacks across the country that has killed more than 500 people since the beginning of October.
Shah says he expects the frequency of these attacks to go down after the military focuses its strength on the Orakzai agency.
"I'm sure that the sort of operations that the army has carried out one after the other - first Swat and then Waziristan and now Orakzai - that these attacks will show a substantial reduction," he said.
U.S. officials commended the Pakistani government for launching the South Waziristan operation. But as the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan became stronger, Washington pressed Islamabad to expand their operation against Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida agents believed to be based in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.
Shah says that after its recent anti-Taliban operations, Pakistan can better help the United States.
"The army is in a stronger position to negotiate or put pressure on North Waziristan," he said.
U.S. officials blame these militants for staging attacks against coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan.
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