We may use this thread to post news and updates regarding operation Zarb-e-Azb.
Pakistan launches comprehensive military onslaught against Taliban
Pakistan today launched the much-awaited military operation against foreign and local militants hiding in sanctuaries near the
Afghan border, a week after the Pakistani
Taliban brazenly attacked the
Karachi airport.
Military spokesman Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said that on the directions of the Government, Armed forces of Pakistan have launched the "comprehensive operation" against terrorists hiding in sanctuaries in the country's restive North Wazirastan Agency.
"The operation has been named Zarb-e-Azb," he said.
Pakistani fighter jets earlier today pounded insurgent hideouts in North Waziristan, killing about 80 militants in an aggressive response targeting those believed to be responsible for attacking the
Jinnah International Airport in Karachi last Sunday.
The army claimed to have killed the Uzbek mastermind of the airport attack in today's assault.
"Around 80 terrorists, mostly Uzbek foreigners were killed in the strikes. An ammunition dump has also been destroyed," the army said.
Pressure had been mounting on Pakistan to respond to the attack. The strikes were the first military response to last Sunday's assault on Karachi airport.
Using North Waziristan as a base, the terrorists had waged a war against Pakistan and had been disrupting normal life in all its dimensions, stunting our economic growth and causing enormous loss of life and property, he said.
"They had also paralysed life within the agency and had perpetually terrorised the entire peace loving and patriotic local population."
"Our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries," the military spokesman said.
He said with the support of the entire nation, and in coordination with other state institutions and law enforcement agencies, these enemies of the state will be neutralised across Pakistan.
The long-awaited operation came after the Taliban attacked Karachi airport, considered a key asset of the country, killing at least 39 persons, including all the 10 Uzbek terrorists.
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pak launches comprehensive military onslaught against Taliban | Business Standard
Pakistani army launches major operation after airport attack
(Reuters) -
Pakistan sent troops, artillery and helicopter gunships to the troubled North Waziristan region on Sunday in a long-expected military operation just a week after a deadly insurgent attack on the country's biggest airport.
The Taliban and ethnic Uzbek fighters holed up in North Waziristan - home to some of Pakistan's most feared militants and al Qaeda commanders - have both claimed responsibility for last Sunday's commando-style attack on Karachi airport.
The brazen all-night assault all but destroyed prospects of peace talks with the militants, who are fighting to topple the Pakistani government and impose a strict Sharia-based theocracy in the nuclear-armed nation. "Our valiant armed forces have been tasked to eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour, along with their sanctuaries," the army said in a statement.
"With the support of the entire nation, and in coordination with other state institutions and law enforcement agencies, these enemies of the state will be denied space anywhere across the country."
It was not known where in North Waziristan, a mountainous ethnic Pashtun region on the Afghan border, the operation was taking place.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had long opposed outright military action, stressing the need to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, and the decision to send troops means that the powerful army had once again won the upper hand in
Pakistan.
It also raises the risk of revenge attacks by Taliban insurgents outside the tribal region after the Taliban vowed to strike back and hit Pakistani security and government targets.
The army has resorted to periodic air strikes against militant positions but has not been involved on the ground. Earlier on Sunday fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in the region, killing at least 80 insurgents.
"We as a government tried our level best to resolve this crisis through dialogue," the defence ministry said in a statement. "We were frustrated through attacks on innocent Pakistanis and damage to national assets."
It added: "This operation will continue until the surrender or elimination of the enemy.
In anticipation of more violence, families have been fleeing North Waziristan into other parts of Pakistan as a climate of fear has gripped the lawless mountainous region.
It was not immediately known whether there were any civilian casualties. Journalists' movements are restricted in the ethnic Pashtun region where the army has imposed a curfew, and verifying official or insurgent accounts is next to impossible.
Military sources told Reuters that Pakistan had sent 40,000 troops to the region for the operation, bringing the total to 80,000 and sealing off the border with
Afghanistan.
"Around 40,000 additional troops have been moved into North Waziristan for the operation, backed by artillery and helicopter gunships," said a military official.
"The border with
Afghanistan has been sealed off with thousands of troops to keep militants from escaping to Afghanistan."
Pakistani authorities fear that militants might try to seep through the porous border and flee the area along with civilians, possibly into neighbouring
Afghanistan, making it harder to kill or capture them.
CLIMATE OF FEAR
The army said ethnic Uzbeks accounted for most of those killed in the earlier air assault.
"Fighter jets targeted militant hideouts in the village of Dagan near the Pakistani-Afghan border," said one source in the regional capital of Miranshah.
"An important Uzbek commander, Abdul Rehman, has been killed in the air strike," he said, adding that Rehman was directly involved in masterminding the Karachi airport attack.
Military sources said a number of ethnic Uighur militants, who operate alongside Uzbeks and share a similar Turkic language with them, had also been killed.
The official account could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
China believes that Uighur separatists based in Pakistan's tribal areas are behind an insurgency against Han Chinese in its restive Xinjiang province, although their exact numbers in Pakistan are unknown.
After the Karachi attack, in which 38 people were killed, U.S. drones conducted the first air strikes in Pakistan since the start of the year, hitting militant positions.
Pakistani air force jets have also been pounding militant hideouts and there has been increased speculation that the army is preparing for a major ground and air offensive in the region.
Officials said a curfew had been imposed in the region and the army was setting up more checkpoints to improve security.
(Writing by
Maria Golovnina; Additional reporting by Asim Tanveer, Jibran Ahmed and Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Pakistani army launches major operation after airport attack| Reuters
