Pakistan Pledges to Attack Al-Qaeda `Epicenter of Terrorism,' Mullen

[Luftwaffe]

Pak army plans assault on militants in N.Waziristan: US

The News

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s army has pledged to go after militants the U.S. wants targeted in an area harboring al- Qaeda that has become “the epicenter of terrorism,” President Barack Obama’s top military adviser said.

Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has given assurances he will mount an offensive the U.S. has long called for in North Waziristan along the Afghan border.

Muller cited as evidence for his optimism Pakistan’s offensives against the Taliban and related groups elsewhere in the country during the past 1½ years.

“He’s committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well,” Mullen, 64, said in an interview with media which will be broadcast this weekend.

He said the goal was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan wouldn’t again become a haven for the group as it had been before the U.S. ousted the Taliban from power after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

In addition to the military campaign in Afghanistan, Obama is relying on neighboring Pakistan to help rout al-Qaeda and related groups that threaten troops across the border and may be preparing further attacks in Europe or the U.S., such as the May 1 car-bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square.

North Waziristan “is the epicenter of terrorism,” Mullen said. “It’s where al-Qaeda lives.”

Kayani, the Pakistan Army chief of staff, has shifted more than 70,000 troops from the country’s border with India, its traditional rival, to the northwest, mobilizing a total of 140,000 forces, Mullen said.

“They’ve sacrificed, they’ve lost a lot of citizens and they are really concerned, urgently concerned, about the threat to their own country from terrorists,” Mullen said. “Two years ago, that wasn’t the case.”

Still, Mullen didn’t give a time frame for a possible offensive in North Waziristan. He said Kayani has primarily targeted groups that pose an internal threat, not those the U.S. considers most dangerous.

Mullen, who took office in October 2007, said he has probably been to Pakistan 20 times, seeking to rebuild ties that frayed in the 1990s.

The U.S. relationship with Pakistan “comes from what I call a very dark hole where we left them,” Mullen said. “So to assert certainties right now I think is a real challenge.”

 

[Awesome]

Pakistan Army Planning Assault on Al-Qaeda Terror `Epicenter,' Mullen Says - Bloomberg

Pakistan’s army has pledged to go after militants the U.S. wants targeted in an area harboring al- Qaeda that has become “the epicenter of terrorism,” President Barack Obama’s top military adviser said.

Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has given assurances he will mount an offensive the U.S. has long called for in North Waziristan along the Afghan border.

Muller cited as evidence for his optimism Pakistan’s offensives against the Taliban and related groups elsewhere in the country during the past 1½ years.

“He’s committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well,” Mullen, 64, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” to be broadcast this weekend. “He clearly knows what our priorities are.”

Mullen said he hadn’t read Washington journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book on the administration’s strategy debates, “Obama’s Wars.”

While not taking direct issue with the book’s suggestions that the military limited Obama’s Afghanistan options during a strategy review last year, Mullen said the military provided its best advice.

He said the goal was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan wouldn’t again become a haven for the group as it had been before the U.S. ousted the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“That’s how I approached my best military advice to the president,” Mullen said.

Attacking al-Qaeda

In addition to the military campaign in Afghanistan, Obama is relying on neighboring Pakistan to help rout al-Qaeda and related groups that threaten troops across the border and may be preparing further attacks in Europe or the U.S., such as the May 1 car-bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation struggling with an economic crisis and newly re-established democratic rule, says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal agencies and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July.

North Waziristan “is the epicenter of terrorism,” Mullen said. “It’s where al-Qaeda lives.”

Kayani, who has been an ally of Mullen, has shifted more than 70,000 troops from the country’s border with India, its traditional rival, to the northwest, mobilizing a total of 140,000 forces, Mullen said.

Threat to Country

“They’ve sacrificed, they’ve lost a lot of citizens and they are really concerned, urgently concerned, about the threat to their own country from terrorists,” Mullen said. “Two years ago, that wasn’t the case.”

Still, Mullen didn’t give a time frame for a possible offensive in North Waziristan. He said Kayani has primarily targeted groups that pose an internal threat, not those the U.S. considers most dangerous.

Mullen, who took office in October 2007, said he has probably been to Pakistan 20 times, seeking to rebuild ties that frayed in the 1990s.

The U.S. relationship with Pakistan “comes from what I call a very dark hole where we left them,” Mullen said. “So to assert certainties right now I think is a real challenge.”

Civilian Control

Pakistan’s military also is hampered by its government’s failure to establish firm civilian control in areas where the army has routed the Taliban, Mullen said. He cited the forested Swat Valley about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital Islamabad, where the Pakistani Army swept out guerrillas in a 10-week military campaign beginning in May 2009.

“He’s got no government to build behind” the offensives, Mullen said. “So he’s got his forces literally pinned down in Swat until the government can actually come in, provide the security, the police.”

While military action by the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan has degraded al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden “is still running” the group, Mullen said.

“He’s struggled doing that to some degree over the last couple of years,” Mullen said. Still, the threat to the U.S. is “every bit as intense as it has been. And it’s still a threat that needs to be eliminated.”

The war in Afghanistan is showing signs of progress in reversing Taliban gains and strengthening legitimate authorities, Mullen said. The U.S. is “very committed” to beginning a troop withdrawal that Obama called for when he authorized 30,000 additional U.S. forces last December, Mullen said.

Transition

“I’m sure we’ll be able to start that transition,” he said. “We don’t know exactly where that will be or how much.”

Veterans returning from that war and from Iraq will face new battles, said Mullen, who has urged communities to embrace their former fighters with jobs and other assistance.

Science still doesn’t know enough about traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, soaring military suicides and homelessness, especially among female veterans, Mullen said.

“There is a sea of goodwill out there that wants to help,” he said. “We have to figure out how to connect with them.”

Mullen said he has “great confidence” in Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Obama’s chosen successor to replace retired Marine Corps General James Jones. Woodward wrote in his book that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Donilon would be “a disaster” as a national security adviser.

Iran Sanctions

Mullen also said the latest round of sanctions by the U.S. and the United Nations to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons is having “a very significant effect on Iran, more so than many people anticipated, including the Iranians.”

“We need to continue to increase that pressure to get their attention, to force them to the table,” Mullen said. “They’re still strategically intent on having a nuclear weapon.”

Iran continues to work with North Korea, Mullen said, calling the Asian communist nation “the number one proliferator of nuclear weapons technology in the world.”

On China, Mullen declined to say whether he thought the biggest Asian economic power would provide the insight into its military intentions that the U.S. has sought.

Gates’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart this week in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and the accompanying invitation to visit Beijing will at least restore some connections, Mullen said. U.S. officials have recently expressed more concern that the absence of military talks between the two powers could result in miscalculations.

“The longer that we are not in contact, I think, the more dangerous the potential longer-term outcomes are,” Mullen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.

 

[Awesome]

This is great news. No terrorist safe havens should be left on Pakistani soil

North Waziristan “is the epicenter of terrorism,” Mullen said. “It’s where al-Qaeda lives.”

I hope so, we've been chasing that chicken for a while now.

 

[Awesome]

ONLINE - International News Network

KURRAM AGENCY/WANA: Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said armed forces will take the war against terrorists and extremists to its logic end with the cooperation of nation.

Army chief said this while addressing tribal elders, army officers and jawans engaged in war on terror during his visits in Upper Kurram and South Waziristan. Corps commander and respective GOCs received the army chief when he arrived there , sources told. They briefed him at length about the security situation of the area.

Army chief commended the operational and professional capabilities of the army saying the whole nation felt proud the way armed forces were fighting against the militants courageously and valiantly. “We will win this war with the support of the nation, he remarked.

During his meeting with tribal elders army chief held out assurance of full cooperation from army for their uplift and betterment. The sacrifices rendered by tribal people in war on terror are appreciable, he held.

Tribal notables assured their full cooperation to army chief in war against terrorism.

 

[EgO Boy]

Mullen is wrong.

Al-qaida lives amoung unemployed youth.

Al-qaida lives amoung flood victums who never got any assitance.

Al-qaida lives amoung victums of extra-judicial killings (police & army)

Al-qaida lives amoung the collateral damage caused by US and Pak army in waziristan.

Al-qaida lives amoung the people who have no hope in current system of exploitation by haves.

Al-qaida lives among the orphans of "war on terror".

Epicenter of Al-qaida is not waziristan, its the heart of the victum of war on terror.

We r fighting a lost war, on behalf of a looser.

 

[jahangeer yousaf]

this will remain only in news as a news ........ more you call it romour ........pakistan is not going to start any kinda operation in N wazaristan as i have said in another topic pakistan does not need to start anything untill or unless usa does get outta misery to let us know either usa wants negotiation with taliban through dialouges or wants full fledge fight against taliban ........ we won't move our army a bit or a longer ..................usa is confused by itself or rather israil making usa confused .......... israil badly wants usa to take over the nukes of pakistan ................and to do that usa needs to set a platform which he will never be able to do INSHALLAH.........

 

[fatman17]

Pakistan Pledges to Attack Al-Qaeda `Epicenter of Terrorism,' Mullen

By Viola Gienger - Oct 14, 2010

President Barack Obama’s top military adviser said Pakistan’s army has pledged to go after militants the U.S. wants targeted in an area harboring al-Qaeda that has become “the epicenter of terrorism.”

Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has given assurances he will mount an offensive the U.S. has long called for in North Waziristan along the Afghan border.

Mullen cited as evidence for his optimism Pakistan’s offensives against the Taliban and related groups elsewhere in the country during the past 1½ years.

“He’s committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well,” Mullen, 64, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” to be broadcast this weekend. “He clearly knows what our priorities are.”

Mullen said he hadn’t read Washington journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book on the administration’s strategy debates, “Obama’s Wars.”

While not taking direct issue with the book’s suggestions that the military limited Obama’s Afghanistan options during a strategy review last year, Mullen said the military provided its best advice.

He said the goal was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan wouldn’t again become a haven for the group as it had been before the U.S. ousted the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“That’s how I approached my best military advice to the president,” Mullen said.

Attacking al-Qaeda

In addition to the military campaign in Afghanistan, Obama is relying on neighboring Pakistan to help rout al-Qaeda and related groups that threaten troops across the border and may be preparing further attacks in Europe or the U.S., such as the May 1 car-bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation struggling with an economic crisis and newly re-established democratic rule, says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal agencies and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July.

North Waziristan “is the epicenter of terrorism,” Mullen said. “It’s where al-Qaeda lives.”

Kayani, who has been an ally of Mullen, has shifted more than 70,000 troops from the country’s border with India, its traditional rival, to the northwest, mobilizing a total of 140,000 forces, Mullen said.

Threat to Country

“They’ve sacrificed, they’ve lost a lot of citizens and they are really concerned, urgently concerned, about the threat to their own country from terrorists,” Mullen said. “Two years ago, that wasn’t the case.”

Still, Mullen didn’t give a time frame for a possible offensive in North Waziristan. He said Kayani has primarily targeted groups that pose an internal threat, not those the U.S. considers most dangerous.

Mullen, who took office in October 2007, said he has probably been to Pakistan 20 times, seeking to rebuild ties that frayed in the 1990s.

The U.S. relationship with Pakistan “comes from what I call a very dark hole where we left them,” Mullen said. “So to assert certainties right now I think is a real challenge.”

Civilian Control

Pakistan’s military also is hampered by its government’s failure to establish firm civilian control in areas where the army has routed the Taliban, Mullen said. He cited the Swat Valley about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital Islamabad, where the Pakistani Army swept out guerrillas in a 10-week military campaign beginning in May 2009.

“He’s got no government to build behind” the offensives, Mullen said. “So he’s got his forces literally pinned down in Swat until the government can actually come in, provide the security, the police.”

While military action by the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan has degraded al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden “is still running” the group, Mullen said.

“He’s struggled doing that to some degree over the last couple of years,” Mullen said. Still, the threat to the U.S. is “every bit as intense as it has been. And it’s still a threat that needs to be eliminated.”

The war in Afghanistan is showing signs of progress in reversing Taliban gains and strengthening legitimate authorities, Mullen said. The U.S. is “very committed” to beginning a troop withdrawal that Obama called for when he authorized 30,000 additional U.S. forces last December, Mullen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva4@bloomberg.net.

 

[Aatishbaz]

Hope the Pakistani army doesn't fall in this trap. It won't be as easy as it had been elsewhere in FATA. North Waziristan is very thickely populated and and is ethnically not as fractured as other Agencies of the tribal area. Moreover, presently a large number of foreigners have taken refuge in the area due to ongoing military opertaions in other parts of FATA. Good luck to our Army.

 

[Omar1984]

Hope the Pakistani army doesn't fall in this trap. It won't be as easy as it had been elsewhere in FATA. North Waziristan is very thickely populated and and is ethnically is not as fractured as other Agencies of the tribal area. Moreover, presently a large number of foreigners have taken refuge in the area due to ongoing military opertaions in other parts of FATA. Good luck to our Army.

What's more of a trouble is if Al Qaeda and Taliban targets Pakistani cities and Pakistani civilians in major cties for their revenge like how TTP did during the operation against TTP in South Waziristan and Swat.

 

[jahangeer yousaf]

What's more of a trouble is if Al Qaeda and Taliban targets Pakistani cities and Pakistani civilians in major cties for their revenge like how TTP did during the operation against TTP in South Waziristan and Swat.

then why fall in trap dont operate there ...........

 

[somebozo]

Why cant be announce all the innocent people to evacuate then use on MOAB to finish these thugs once for all..Sure anyone staying behind for whatever reason is not an innocent one!

 

[Ahmad]

Mullen is wrong.

Al-qaida lives amoung unemployed youth.

Al-qaida lives amoung flood victums who never got any assitance.

Al-qaida lives amoung victums of extra-judicial killings (police & army)

Al-qaida lives amoung the collateral damage caused by US and Pak army in waziristan.

Al-qaida lives amoung the people who have no hope in current system of exploitation by haves.

Al-qaida lives among the orphans of "war on terror".

Epicenter of Al-qaida is not waziristan, its the heart of the victum of war on terror.

We r fighting a lost war, on behalf of a looser.

what a smart attempt to clear Al Qaeda and Taliban from their crimes and wrong doings.

 

[Omar1984]

You need the support of the locals to win any operation. We saw that during the Swat operation, when every local in Swat wanted the Pakistan army to defeat TTP.


I am not too sure about the locals in North Waziristan.


Can Pakistan army defeat the same people who NATO and the US can not defeat? Will Pakistan army be backed by the locals of North Waziristan? Will Al Qaeda and Taliban then take revenge (like the TTP did) by attacking Pakistan's major cities and killings of innocent Pakistani civilians?

 

[Ahmad]

You need the support of the locals to win any operation. We saw that during the Swat operation, when every local in Swat wanted the Pakistan army to defeat TTP.


I am not too sure about the locals in North Waziristan.


Can Pakistan army defeat the same people who NATO and the US can not defeat? Will Pakistan army be backed by the locals of North Waziristan? Will Al Qaeda and Taliban then take revenge (like the TTP did) by attacking Pakistan's major cities and killings of innocent Pakistani civilians?

but i wonder for how long more would this taliban and al qaeda last?

 

[fatman17]

PAKISTAN: A guide to main militant groups

ISLAMABAD, 13 October 2010 (IRIN) - There are at least nine major militant groups in northern Pakistan and the Punjab, battling the Pakistan army, US forces, and each other. Bombings of Sufi shrines in the cities of Karachi and Lahore this year - the hardliners’ response to that more moderate tradition within Islam - has added to the toll of violence.

Most of the armed groups operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Area and neighbouring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province are splinter groups from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They have varying degrees of loyalty to leaders of the Afghan Taliban - notably Mullah Omar - but all share the same broad goal of Islamic Shariah rule for Pakistan, and the expulsion of US forces from the region.

An estimated 1.23 million people remain displaced as a result of the fighting between militants and the Pakistani army in the tribal territories that border Afghanistan. With the military’s focus shifting to flood relief, there is concern of a resurgence in violence.

IRIN provides a Who’s Who? guide to Pakistan’s main militant groups:

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

Area of operations: Traditionally, the Mehsud group of the TTP, which operates from bases in the tribal territory of South Waziristan; has spearheaded militant operations across the north. This changed after the death of leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in August 2009. The TTP has since splintered, with new leader Hakimullah Mehsud operating mainly from his native Orakzai Agency. Other Taliban factions are based in the Khyber Agency and, according to media reports, in southern Punjab.
Targets: Pakistani military personnel and civilians - typically suicide bombings of markets.
Support base: The Mehsud tribe and other tribes loyal to it assisted by foreign militants.

Mullah Nazir Group

Area of operations: South Waziristan
Targets: The Pakistani military and civilians, as well as US forces in Afghanistan.
Base of support: The Wazir tribe near the town of Wana. The group maintains good relations with the Haqqani Network (see below) and has ties to Mullah Omar.

Turkistan Bhittani Group

Area of operations: South Waziristan
Targets: Mainly engaged in a battle with the TTP after splitting from its former ally Baitullah Mehsud in 2007. It is believed to have occasionally targeted US forces in Afghanistan but not Pakistani military personnel or civilians.
Base of support: The Bhittani tribe is the main source of support for leader Turkistan Bhittani. There have been suggestions the group may be backed by Pakistani forces against the TTP.

Haqqani Network

Area of operations: North Waziristan
Targets: Almost exclusively US forces in Afghanistan.
Base of support: The Zadran tribe in Afghanistan’s Khost Province.
Widely respected as powerful Mujahedin by tribes across the north since the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by Soviet forces. Support from al-Qaeda and foreign militants; has ties with Mullah Omar, but plans strategy independently.

Gul Bahadur Group

Area of operations: North Waziristan
Targets: Pakistani forces in North Waziristan and US troops in Afghanistan
Base of support: The Wazir and Daur tribes in North Waziristan, especially near the town of Miram Shah.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (North)

Area of operations: All tribal territories, but especially Kurram and Orakzai where there is a Shia population - a minority Muslim sect.
Targets: Pakistani civilians, especially Shias, and military personnel. Attacks on Western nationals in Pakistan.
Base of support: Mainly anti-Shia militant groups from Punjab.

Lashkar-e-Islam

Area of operations: Khyber Agency
Targets: Pakistani civilians
Base of support: The hard-line Deobandi Muslim sect; locked in a battle against militant rivals for control in Khyber.

Ansar-ul-Islam

Area of operations: Khyber Agency
Targets: US forces in Afghanistan
Base of support: The Deobandi and Barelvi sects - especially less hard-line factions. Engaged in battles in Khyber with rival militants.

Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi

Area of operations: Swat Valley, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province; attempts to assert influence in Dir.
Targets: Pakistani civilians - especially government figures, including teachers - and military personnel.
Social roots and base of support: Disillusioned members of Pakistani religious and political parties. The group was set up in 1992. Its involvement in more widespread militancy began after 2002, when key leaders were imprisoned after participating in `jihad’ in Afghanistan. It has split into various factions since then.

Groups in Punjab

The southern Punjab is a poverty-stricken, orthodox region - much like the north - but the rise of militant groups has followed a slightly different trajectory. Fierce anti-Shia sectarianism, and a greater focus on `jihad’ aimed at Indian-administered Kashmir, is high on the agenda of these groups.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Punjab)

Area of operations: Countrywide
Targets: Shia Muslims, non-Muslims, foreign nationals, state security forces
Base of support: Sectarian groups in Punjab. It first emerged in the Punjab in the 1990s.

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

Area if operations: Countrywide with a concentration in the Punjab
Targets: Non-Muslims and the Shia minority
Base of support: Other sectarian groups and hard-line Muslim factions.

Jaish-e-Mohammad

Area of operations: Mainly Indian-held Kashmir and Afghanistan; some role in fighting in north. Headquartered in the southern Punjab
Targets: Indian forces, Western nationals, non-Muslim Pakistanis
Base of support: Backing from hard-line Muslim factions involved in violence in northwest Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Area of operations: Based in Punjab. Operates in Indian-held Kashmir and possibly Afghanistan
Targets: Mainly Indian targets
Base of support: Pro-`jihad’ and hard-line Muslim groups. Allegations of links to Pakistani intelligence agencies by media. Heavily involved in post-flood relief work and other charitable work.

Sources:
Hassan Abbas: The Battle for Pakistan: Politics and Militancy in the Northwest Frontier Province, The New America Foundation, 19 April 2010
Syed Saleem Shahzad: Taliban Wield the Axe Ahead of New Battle, The Asia Times, 24 January 2008
Brian Fishman: The Battle for Pakistan: Militancy and Conflict Across the FATA and NWFP, The New America Foundation, April 2010
Jane Mayer: The Predator War, The New Yorker, 26 October 2009
M. Ilyas Khan: With a Little Help From His Friends, Karachi Herald, June 2004
Ahmed Rashid: Descent into Chaos, Viking 2008
Articles in: The News International, Dawn, Newsline, 2007-2010

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