The fighting in Pakistan seems to be heating up and not going as well as their military had hoped. The Pakistani military was hit hard this week by the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban operating in Pakistan’s lawless northwest. Ten Frontier Corps troops were killed and 40 more were captured during fighting in Bajaur and Mohmand, two regions where the military has declared victory in the recent past. The Afghan Taliban captured 40 paramilitary Frontier Corps troops yesterday after clashes along the border between the Pakistani tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand. Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan's top military spokesman, confirmed the attack and said the Afghan Taliban captured the troops after overrunning a Pakistani military outpost, Reuters reported. The Afghan Taliban released five of the troops at the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, while the 35 other troops are still thought to be in the custody of the Taliban. The increase in kinetic operations here will cause the usual blowback within Pakistan and will affect their ability to maintain pressure on the groups operating in the provinces that border Afghanistan. They have a track record of conducting some operations, occasionally in large numbers, and then making a peace and pulling back. This has the effect of squeezing a water balloon as when they pull back the Taliban simply resume their operations. It doesn't help matters when they are actually losing the pitched battles and getting captured. The important piece is whether these setbacks push them to back off or reinforce.
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Posted
Jun 17 2010, 03:00 AM
by
BLACKFIVE