Pakistan Said It Killed 60 Militants and Lost 11 Soldiers as an Attack force

Pakistan Said It Killed 60 Militants

Pakistan said it killed 60 militants and lost 11 soldiers as a 30,000-strong attack force pushed into Taliban's tribal stronghold on the second day of a major operation.Taliban fighters offered fierce resistance as ground troops, backed by warplanes and artillery, pushed into South Waziristan, the mountain headquarters of the notorious Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Militants detonated roadside bombs and opened fire on helicopter gunships. Villagers, some of them women, waved white flags and troops searching houses discovered large weapons caches, the military said.In a statement it said tactical heights near Razmak, a mountain village at the northern edge of South Waziristan, had been captured following fighting that killed 10 militants and two soldiers.
The Taliban denied the army claims, and a spokesman insisted the guerrillas had inflicted "heavy casualties" and forced the invading soldiers back into their bases. "We know how to fight this war and defeat the enemy with the minimum loss of our men," Azam Tariq told the Associated Press from an undisclosed location.
The conflicting versions were impossible to reconcile. Inaccessible at the best of times, much of South Waziristan has been sealed off since the operation started on Saturday morning. Phone connections to Waziristan and nearby areas have been disconnected.The fight, pitting 30,000 soldiers against 10,000 Taliban and al-Qaida miltants, according to the army, followed two weeks of audacious assaults in cities that left over 175 people dead and underlined the militant threat to national stability.
(Left: Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami gather around a U.S. flag after setting it on fire during a rally against the recently-signed Kerry-Lugar bill, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009 in Karachi.)Intelligence officials said Saturday that the ground troops were advancing on two flanks and a northern front of a central part of South Waziristan controlled by the Mehsuds. The areas being surrounded include the insurgent bases of Ladha and Makeen, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to brief the media.
As many as 150,000 civilians - possibly more - have left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but as many as 350,000 could still be in the region. The United Nations has been stockpiling relief supplies in a town near the region, but authorities are not expecting a major refugee crisis like the one that occurred during the offensive this year in the Swat Valley.Over the last three months, the Pakistani air force has been bombing targets in South Waziristan, while the army has said it has sealed off many Taliban supply and escape routes. The military has been trying to secure the support of local tribal armies in the fight.

Review News Focuses on Civilian Effort in Afghanistan Strategy President Barack Obama

Review News Focuses on Civilian Effort in Afghanistan Strategy President Barack Obama

President Obama, convening his fifth war council meeting in as many weeks, pressed his senior national security advisers Wednesday on the political situation in Afghanistan and the effort to train the country's security forces, officials said.
Allegations of fraud in the Afghan presidential election over the summer have raised questions about the legitimacy of Hamid Karzai's government, complicating U.S. efforts to partner with him. Meanwhile, the country's security forces are seen as ill-equipped to confront an insurgency that is gaining strength.
"We've been at war eight years, and we realize now we're starting from scratch because very little work has been done building a credible Afghan partner," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks
Such factors are figuring prominently in the debate over the Obama administration's strategy in Afghanistan, official say. Although the discussions also include making a decision on whether to deploy tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops, an administration official said the president was "very focused on the complexity of the situation" Wednesday -- looking past the military aspect of the equation and toward the civilian effort
Obama has said he will make a decision on U.S. troop levels in the coming weeks, and White House officials said that timetable is still in effect, with another war council session scheduled for next week.
But in Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Wednesday that he would send an additional 500 troops to Afghanistan -- triggering media reports there that U.S. allies had reached a preliminary conclusion about boosting troop levels.

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Pakistan: which 19 died on the Taliban

which 19 died on the Taliban

Pakistan will launch an operation against militants in restive South Waziristan "imminently", Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
He was speaking after troops stormed a building at an army base in Rawalpindi, rescuing dozens of people taken hostage in an attack by militants.
Mr Malik blamed the attack, in which 19 died, on the Taliban and al-Qaeda whose strongholds are in South Waziristan.
One militant, thought to be the group's leader, was arrested. Mr Malik said the government had given its approval to an operation in South Waziristan, and it was now up to the army to decide on its timing.
"The operation is imminent," he said, according to Reuters news agency.The army has been preparing for a major operation in South Waziristan since it successfully cleared the Swat valley of militants in September.
The standoff killed 20 people, including three captives and nine militants, who wore army fatigues in the audacious assault. The rescue operation began before dawn Sunday, ultimately freeing 42 hostages, the military said.
One attacker, described as the militants' ringleader, was captured.
The attack on Pakistan's "Pentagon," home to the nation's most powerful institution, showed the continued strength of insurgents allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban despite military operations and U.S. missile strikes that have battered their ranks. It was the third major attack in Pakistan in a week and threatens to deflate the army's growing popularity in the wake of successful operations against the Taliban in the Swat Valley, Buner and Bajur.
The attack on Rawalpindi, an army town to the south of the capital, Islamabad, prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking during a visit to London, to say militants in Pakistan were increasingly threatening the authority of the state.But she said the US saw no evidence they were going to succeed, or that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was at threat.