Taliban attacks PA for the third day from Afghanistan. America asleep!

[Awesome]

Pakistani troops fight militants from across Afghan border for 3rd day, at least 63 dead - The Washington Post

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani helicopters and artillery on Friday forced back militants who crossed over from Afghanistan this week and triggered battles that have killed at least 63 people, an official said. The incursion prompted Islamabad to demand that NATO and Afghan troops do more to control insurgents on their side of the long, porous border.

Up to 400 militants are said to have infiltrated into Pakistan’s Upper Dir region from Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Wednesday. They attacked a security checkpoint, villages and schools, according to the Pakistani government.

Regional administrator Ghulam Mohammad Khan said the militants were retreating Friday, and Pakistani troops were still attacking them in Nustrat Darra district.

As of Thursday night, 25 soldiers, 35 militants and three civilians had died in the clashes, Khan said. He had no information about casualties from Friday’s fighting,

The militant attack and Pakistan’s reaction contradicted the usual U.S. narrative about the poorly defined boundary that runs through rough country for about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers). Typically, militant cross-border movements originate in Pakistan, leaving the United States and NATO to complain to Islamabad over its failure to stop the infiltration into Afghanistan.

This time the situation was reversed.

The new battles found Pakistan the aggrieved party, lending credence to Pakistani army commanders’ complaints that NATO was failing to crack down on militants sheltering on the Afghan side of the rugged region.

A Pakistani government statement late Thursday said the foreign secretary had “stressed the need for stern action by the Afghan army, U.S. and NATO/ISAF forces in the area against militants and their hideouts in Afghanistan and against organizational support for the militants.”

Beyond emphasizing the difficulties of fighting an enemy that pays no attention to borders, the battle hints at challenges ahead for the U.S. and Pakistan when Washington begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan later this year. Pakistan maintains that NATO already doesn’t have enough troops along the Afghan side of the border.

In the past, NATO and Pakistani forces have staged coordinated “hammer and anvil” operations against militants on the border, but relations between Washington and Islamabad have hit a particularly rough patch, especially since the unilateral American raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

Even so, NATO officials say that border cooperation has not suffered as a result of the chill in ties.

Before talking about NWA operation, Nato should prove that it has control over Afghanistan at least.

 

[S.M.R]

There are news on TV that they are defeated and forced to run away.

 

[Awesome]

There are news on TV that they are defeated and forced to run away.

Until the 4th day?

 

[Bratva]

Until the 4th day?

Due to hilly areas, fight prolonged, they must have held the high peaks, and that would have taken time to clear

 

[U-571]

the nato could well be sending those militants to kill pakistani soldiers

 

[S.M.R]

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Friday for a cross-border attack on a security checkpost that appeared to signal that the group was adopting a new strategy of carrying out large-scale attacks on government and army targets.

In the pre-dawn raid on Wednesday in Dir region, up to 400 militants crossed over from Afghanistan in the raid which triggered more than 24 hours of clashes, the government said.

Twenty-seven Pakistani forces were killed and 45 militants died in the clashes in the northwest, security officials said. There were contradictory accounts of casualties and how many militants took part.

"Up to 40 to 50 of our fighters took part in the operation," Ehsanullah Ashen, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan), told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. "None of our fighters were killed."

The TTP has previously brought fighters from across the porous border with Afghanistan -- where it has allies -- to attack Pakistani security forces, but none were on the same scale as the Dir operation.

Deputy TTP leader Fakir Mohammed said the group with close ties to al Qaeda had changed strategy and would now focus on large-scale attacks only on state targets like the one in Dir.

"Our new strategy of launching big attacks on military installations was aimed at causing demoralization in the ranks of the security forces and tiring of the government," he told Pakistan's The News newspaper from what he said was a location somewhere in Afghanistan.

A new TTP gameplan may complicate the army's efforts to weaken the group, which has stepped up suicide bombings to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a Pakistani town on May 2.

Since then, the movement has attacked paramilitary cadets, a naval base, a U.S. consulate convoy and other targets, challenging government assertions that army offensives against militants have succeeded.

After bin Laden's death, the United States reiterated its call for Pakistan to crack down harder on militants, especially those who cross over to Afghanistan to attack Western forces.

The lawless frontier is home to some of the world's most dangerous militant groups, who are intricately linked and cross back and forth across fairly easily to carry out operations.

Pakistan's army will have to contend with a new TTP strategy at a time when it is still reeling from the bin Laden fiasco.

The U.S. raid opened the agency up to international suspicion it was complicity in hiding the al Qaeda leader, and to domestic criticism for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team.

Pakistan, dependent on billions of dollars in aid from its strategic ally Washington, is under more pressure than ever to prove it is serious about tackling militancy because of the discovery bin Laden was living close to Islamabad.

Most Pakistanis are opposed to the Taliban's austere interpretation of Islam and its violent methods.

"We also want to limit civilian casualties. Our ultimate objective is to force the government to end its alliance with the United States," said deputy TTP leader Mohammad.

Pakistanis are also frustrated by the apparent inability of the government to improve security in the nuclear-armed South Asian country, which has failed to create economic opportunities to keep young men from flocking to militant groups.

Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on militants, said the fighters involved in the Dir operation had probably fled to Afghanistan to escape government offensives.

Pakistan called on Thursday for stern action against militants in Afghanistan by Afghan and U.S.-led foreign forces to prevent further cross-border operations.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir conveyed Pakistan's "strong concern" to the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan.

"We are in close contact with the Afghan Taliban. Both of us want to get rid of America and their slaves. Our activities will continue," said Ehsan.


Pakistan Taliban claims cross-border raid, adopts new strategy | Reuters

WTF?????????????? Attack kahin say bhi ho, TTP is responsible, NATO/US are out of it. What a U-TURN, what a NEW GAME PLAN.

I am 100000000000% sure that this TTP is nothing but a MEDIA CENTER.

 

[Porus]

It seems that the Americans and Afghans have decided to give Pakistan a taste of its own medicine?

 

[majesticpankaj]

why people blame everything on nato/us/ india without any proofs ??

 

[S.M.R]

Until the 4th day?

Yes, bcaz Pakistani forces were not stepping into Afghan territory. They went, came back and attacked again.

 

[S.M.R]

why people blame everything on nato/us/ india without any proofs ??

Nato / US is okay, where did the india come from in the scenario?

 

[majesticpankaj]

Nato / US is okay, where did the india come from in the scenario?

on this very forum people are saying that TTP has been trained by RAW under the nose of NATO and RAMA

 

[S.M.R]

on this very forum people are saying that TTP has been trained by RAW under the nose of NATO and RAMA

so you should vent your frustration in those thread rather than blabbering in very thread.

 

[Mike2011]

Non state actor. What PA is doing there. India should utilize this situation and provide all possible support to them.

 

[53fd]

Pakistani troops fight militants from across Afghan border for 3rd day, at least 63 dead - The Washington Post
Before talking about NWA operation, Nato should prove that it has control over Afghanistan at least.

This has already been posted before, this is not new news. Out of the 63 people dead, 25 were Pakistan troops, while the rest were terrorists.

 

[S.M.R]

This has already been posted before, this is not new news. Out of the 63 people dead, 25 were Pakistan troops, while the rest were terrorists.

But what I emphasized is the Claim by TTP for the attacks.