Pakistani general: Al Qaida-Taliban haven to be cleared by June

[laststeamtrain]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Pakistani general: Al Qaida-Taliban haven to be cleared by June
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers 2 hrs 35 mins ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani army has launched a military operation to clear insurgents from North Waziristan — long a haven for al Qaida and the Afghan Taliban — and hopes to wind up offensive actions in all its tribal areas by June, according to the Pakistani general who's in charge of the special paramilitary force for the area.

Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan said the main Pakistani army was leading the assault in North Waziristan with a series of small operations, while his Frontier Corps was leading a major offensive in Orakzai, to which insurgents have fled after operations in other tribal areas.

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"This will finish in a couple of months. We'll take care of all of them. We're just waiting for the major operations — like Orakzai and North Waziristan — to finish, to spare us the troops to start changing our methodology. Instead of kinetic, concentrated operations, we start search and cordon and sting operations, for which actually you need more boots on the ground," said Khan, a swashbuckling general who has a reputation for taking extremists head-on.

Khan warned Pakistan's international partners that the region, which runs along the border with Afghanistan and includes Waziristan and the Khyber Pass , desperately needs development to prevent a resurgence by al Qaida and the Taliban . He said the minimal level of development needed would cost $1 billion .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20100331/wl_mcclatchy/3465984

[Arctic Dave]

1. Hmmm, They've had this problem for decades and now they can clean it up in couple of months?

I love a good ass tickling but this is ridiculous.

[cosmicone]

2. This is typical of deceitful Pakistan

They created the Taliban for their desire to control Afghanistan.
They channeled funds and facilitated Al Q'aeda for 30 years.

Now they want to make nice .... why? Because they want a nuclear cooperation deal like India and billions more from the US.

The nuclear cooperation deal with India is really burning their egos and now they will sacrifice a problem they created (only temporarily) until the US coughs up a deal and money. The money will go back to funding another Taliban and another Al Q'aeda, perhaps with different names so that Pakistan can ask for even more money later to eliminate the new threats!!

A better strategy would be to balkanize Pakistan and defang it for good. Without money, Taliban and Al Q'aeda would starve and go away automatically.