Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Pakistan's military claims Taliban stronghold





I read an article about how Pakistan's military force took over a Taliban stronghold during the ongoing ground offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan on Tusday.

Pakistani security forces have secured Sararogha and have started to clear the town of weapons , the military said.

According to the military, 21 militants and one Pakistani soldier died in the past 24 hours of fighting
most of them in the raid on Sararogha.

The restive and largely ungoverned region of South Waziristan is the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan's military suspects its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, is still in the region backed by up to 8,000 militant fighters.

Pakistan's army has launched three similar offensives in Kaniguram and Sararogha since 2004 without success, sometimes agreeing to peace deals that eventually fall apart.

General Athar Abbas recently told CNN that this time a peace deal is not an option.

"Certainly there is no scope of a peace deal," Abbas told CNN.