Pakistan army pushes Taliban back, urged on by Obama
30 Apr 2009 18:27:10 GMT Source: Reuters
(For a Q+A on what's at stake, click on [ID:nISL500163]) * Pakistan army secures passes leading to Buner valley * Obama says Pakistan's biggest threat internal, not India * Gates urges Senate to speed funding for Pakistan, wars * Pakistan military training on agenda for Zardari visit (Adds Gates testimony before Senate panel; edits) By Zeeshan Haider BUNER VALLEY, Pakistan, April 30 (Reuters) - The Pakistan army battled through mountain passes on Thursday in a third day of fighting to evict Taliban fighters from a strategic valley, after U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed its new resolve. The militants were still controlling parts of Buner valley, just 100 km (62 miles) northwest of the capital, Islamabad, though troops had secured the main town of Daggar on Wednesday after helicopters dropped them behind enemy lines. Obama told a Washington news conference on Wednesday that Pakistan's army had begun to realize that homegrown militants posed a bigger current threat to the Muslim nation's stability than India, despite three wars between the two old rivals. "On the military side, you're starting to see some recognition just in the last few days that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided, and that their biggest threat right now comes internally," he said. "And you're starting to see the Pakistani military take much more seriously the armed threat from militant extremists." The Taliban's advance from their stronghold in Swat valley, unnerved many Pakistanis and raised fears in Washington that its nuclear-armed ally was becoming more unstable. A BROADER PAKISTANI RESPONSE? On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate panel he hoped the Taliban's advance into Buner would stir a broader political response against militancy. "That would include not just President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani but perhaps the sharifs and others as well, including the Army," Gates said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. But he tempered his expectations for change with caution, saying: "I won't go as far as optimism." Gates urged lawmakers to quickly approve $83.4 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for aid to Pakistan, saying money used to support Pakistan could run out by mid-May. The aid would include $400 million to train and equip the Pakistani military in counter-insurgency tactics U.S. officials say are vital to Islamabad's ability to defeat militants. The United States and Pakistan will likely discuss stepping up training for Pakistani security forces when President Asif Ali Zardari visits Washington May 6-7, a U.S. official said. One proposal is for the United States to offer counterinsurgency training to larger groups of Pakistani military personnel outside Pakistan, possibly in the United States or a third country. GUNSHIPS AND ARTILLERY Pakistani troops used helicopter gunships and artillery to target militant hideouts in Buner. Hundreds of families were seen streaming out of the valley, their vehicles laden with belongings, including cattle. Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said security forces has won control of at least two passes on Thursday, but were having to move carefully because of roadside bombs. He also delivered a warning to the Taliban in Swat for failing to keep their side of the bargain after the government accepted demands to establish Islamic sharia courts across the Malakand Division of North West Frontier Province, which includes Swat, Buner and several other districts. "The terrorism, terrorising of people of the area is continuing unabated and this we consider a gross violation of peace deal," Abbas told a news conference in Rawalpindi, the garrison town neighbouring Islamabad. Abbas said the militants had refused to disarm, abducted security forces personnel and killed policemen and civilians. U.S. officials have urged Pakistan to follow through on this week's offensives in Dir and Buner rather than let the enemy regroup. Speculation was mounting that once the army has secured Buner it will turn its attention to Swat. Abbas gave no casualty update from the fighting in Buner and Lower Dir, where an operation began on Sunday. As of Wednesday more than 120 militants had been killed. Before the military offensive in Buner, Western allies, who need Pakistan's support to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, were worried the government seemed too willing to appease militants. "I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan," Obama said in his Wednesday news conference. Mounting insecurity in Pakistan was underlined by ethnic violence in the southern city of Karachi, where paramilitary troops were given orders to "shoot on sight" to restore order. At least 27 people were killed in clashes on Wednesday, many of them ethnic Pashtuns, illustrating another strand of the tensions between the people of the northwest and those from other parts of the country. (For a graphic on this story go to http:/graphics.thomsonreuters.com/RNGS/APR09/SWAT.jpg (Additional reporting by Junaid Khan, Augustine Anthony and Sahar Ahmed in Pakistan, and Andrew Gray, Jeremy Pelofsky, Ross Colvin, David Morgan and Sue Pleming in Washington; writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Simon Cameron-Moore, editing by Alan Elsner)
Residents flee Pakistan's Lower Dir district, where troops launched an offensive against militants, April 30, 2009. The Pakistan army battled through mountain passes on Thursday in a third day of fighting ...
