Tailban leader in Pakistan announces long-term cease-fire (Update)

[Coventina]

Source: International Herald Tribune

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The leader of the Taliban of the Swat region announced a long-term cease-fire Tuesday, handing the Pakistani military a respite from fighting, and raising tenuous hopes for peace.

The army, which has been battling militants in Swat off-and-on for more than a year, said Monday it had returned to barracks.

The Tuesday cease fire was announced by the spokesman for Maulana Fazullah, the hard-line cleric in Swat, who has led a terror campaign against civilians, including the burning of girls' schools and public executions.

The spokesman, Muslim Khan, told reporters that the cease-fire would be for an "indefinite period." The well-armed Taliban have gained control of about 70 percent of the Swat valley, 100 miles north of the capital, by using brutal guerilla tactics against an army unaccustomed to insurgency warfare.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/24/asia/25pstan.php

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:puke:

:mad:

The dirty deal has been done.

Congrats Taliban, you now have your own country.

:puke:

:mad:

[ohio2007]

1. (British) Armed Forces 'are fighting British Muslims with Yorkshire accents' in Afghanistan

Surveillance operations from the warzone has picked up voices talking with West Midlands and Yorkshire accents, according to official briefing documents.
The electronic 'chatter' confirms mounting fears that young disaffected Muslims are travelling to southern Afghanistan to commit violence against British targets.
MI5 has estimated that up to 4,000 British Muslims had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan for military training, with 'dozens' switching to the front-line.
One senior military source said intelligence officers had been hearing more voices speaking in Pakistani accents such as Punjabi, Urdu and Kashmiri Urdu rather than Pashtu, the official Afghan language.
He said: 'There appears to be more men from other parts of Pakistan fighting with the Taliban than just the Pashtuns who have tribal allegiances with the Afghan Pashtuns
.....


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