Heavy Battles Raging With Taliban in Pakistan

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Heavy fighting raged for a third day in Pakistan’s northwest on Thursday as civilians flooded from the area and the Pakistani military reported some gains in pushing back Taliban insurgents.

The Pakistani military secured mountain passes to the west and south of Buner, a district 60 miles from the capital, according to its spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, who spoke at a news briefing at the military headquarters in Rawalpindi. Helicopter gunships also rocketed Taliban positions in the north of Buner, where the militants had apparently fortified positions in areas adjoining their stronghold in the Swat Valley.

While government forces consolidated control of Buner’s main town, Daggar, General Abbas said it could take still another week for the operation to clear the whole district of militants, as the military was proceeding slowly to defuse booby traps and avoid civilian casualties.

The militants continued to unleash attacks, hitting a checkpoint belonging to government paramilitary forces from the Frontier Corps in northern Buner, and seizing several police stations across the region, including two in the upper reaches of Swat.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?hp

[ohio2007]

1. US quashes two-week "deadline" speculation ( but there is a shrinking window of opportunity )

Just the same, Pak sectarianists know they are "on the clock" now.

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Friday that it had not given Pakistan a two-week deadline to finish off religious militants but expected Islamabad to continue its current military operation against the extremists.
'We are under no illusions. It’s going to take more than two days worth of action,’ State Department spokesman Robert Wood told a news briefing in Washington.

.....

On Thursday, the US media quoted a top US general, David Petraeus, as saying that if militants were not defeated within the next two weeks, the Pakistani government may collapse.

‘I don’t know where this two-week time frame came from, but we have said very clearly that we believe the Pakistanis need to take action against these extremist elements,’....

.....

The State Department spokesman said it was important that Pakistan made ‘110 per cent effort’ in this fight and it did seem willing to go in that direction. ‘And we’ll continue to try to help them if they move in that direction.’

Mr Wood said he was not surprised by the reports that the Taliban had imposed a tax on religious minorities in the areas under their control.

‘These are ruthless killers, the Taliban. And they’ll do anything they can to upset Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s fragile democracies,’ he said.

‘This is why it’s important that we, the international community, cooperate in trying to rid this region of these extremists. And the sooner we can accomplish that mission, the better.’

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/12-us-quashes-deadline-speculation--bi-07

We can give them the knife and scalpel for free but.....

.....they have to make the effort to cut the cancer out themselves.