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Pakistani Airstrikes Kill Suspected Militants in Tribal Areas Pakistani Airstrikes Target Militants in Tribal Areas
(about 9 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban hideouts in the country’s northwestern tribal regions in overnight raids into Thursday, and security officials said at least 35 people suspected of being militants, including several foreign fighters, had been killed. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Fighter jets and helicopter gunships pounded areas believed to be Taliban hide-outs in the tribal regions of northwestern Pakistan late Wednesday and early Thursday, as the prospects for a peace initiative appeared to evaporate.
The strikes came just days after the suspension of peace talks between the government and Taliban representatives. On Monday, the government said it could not go ahead with the talks unless the militants announced a cease-fire and stopped their attacks on security forces. The airstrikes took place overnight in North Waziristan and in the Khyber tribal region, and they appeared to be in retaliation for the reported killing of 23 paramilitary soldiers who had been captured by a Taliban faction in the Mohmand region. The government suspended talks with representatives of the Taliban on Monday in reaction to the killings.
However, it was not immediately clear if the raids by the Pakistani Air Force signaled the beginning of a full-fledged offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan, the rugged tribal region that has been a haven for Taliban and Qaeda militants operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to Pakistani Foreign Ministry officials, the 23 paramilitary soldiers were taken across the border and then killed in Afghan territory, where Pakistani Taliban militants have frequently found a haven. The officials said Pakistani diplomats had lodged a “strong protest” with their Afghan counterparts over the matter.
A security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the airstrikes were in retaliation for recent attacks by the militants. “The government will not tolerate any attacks while the talks process is underway,” the official said. The prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, had been trying to open a channel to negotiate peace with the Taliban, despite a growing chorus of support for beginning a military offensive in North Waziristan, a rugged tribal region that serves a redoubt for militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda. He named a team of peace representatives on Jan. 29, and the two sides held preliminary meetings starting on Feb. 6. But each side has demanded that the other announce a cease-fire as a precondition for peace talks.
The overnight raids, which started Wednesday night and lasted an hour, were directed at villages in the Mir Ali district of North Waziristan, according to the security official. Those killed included both Pakistani and Uzbek fighters, the official said. However, the claim could not be independently verified. “Dialogue can only continue if bloodshed stops,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Pakistan’s interior minister, said during a news conference Thursday evening in Islamabad, the capital. “Prime Minister Sharif thinks that continuing dialogue right now would be an injustice.”
On Sunday, a Taliban faction said it had killed 23 paramilitary soldiers in captivity, dealing a sharp blow to the already faltering peace talks between the government and militants. The paramilitary soldiers, belonging to the Frontier Corps, had been in captivity since 2010. The Taliban militants defended their continuing attacks on Thursday. They said that the Pakistani military had illegally killed suspects in custody in Karachi and Peshawar, and that the 23 captured paramilitary soldiers had been killed in retaliation for that.
And on Tuesday, a Pakistani Army major was killed in a gun battle with militants near Peshawar, the provincial capital of restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. Taliban spokesmen have also claimed responsibility for killing an army major on Tuesday in a gun battle near Peshawar, and for bombing a police bus in Karachi last week, killing at least 13 officers.
The Taliban leadership has defended its attacks by accusing the Pakistani military of killing Taliban prisoners in custody. The Pakistani military denies the allegations. Over all, Pakistani officials said on Wednesday, 460 people, including 114 soldiers and 38 police officers, have been killed in violence connected to militant activity over the last five months, the period when the government was trying to engage the Taliban in peace talks.
Pakistani officials say 460 people — including 114 soldiers and 38 police officers — have been killed countrywide in violence related to militant activity in the last five months as the government has tried to engage the insurgents in peace talks. The figures were released to local news media outlets on Wednesday in an apparent effort to counter Taliban propaganda. Under increasing political pressure to strike back, Mr. Sharif met on Wednesday with the army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, and then gave the security forces the go-ahead to mount retaliatory attacks, according to security officials.
The spike in militant violence has resulted in increased political and public pressure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to rethink his strategy of engaging in dialogue with the Taliban insurgents. Though Pakistani leaders have denounced the continuing militant attacks across the country, they have stopped short of announcing a full-fledged military offensive against the Taliban.
Mr. Sharif had announced plans to hold peace talks on Jan. 29, a move that caught many by surprise, as the Pakistani civil and military leadership had been indicating that preparations were afoot for a military offensive in North Waziristan. General Sharif has been described by Pakistani and Western officials as robust in comparison with his predecessor, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was seen as more circumspect and cautious. General Sharif and Prime Minister Sharif are not related.
The fighter jets struck six locations in the Mir Ali district of North Waziristan in raids that began before midnight and lasted an hour, according to a Pakistani security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that at least 35 militants had been killed in the strikes, including Pakistani and Uzbek fighters, but the claim could not be independently verified.
Hours later, army Cobra helicopters attacked what were said to be militant hide-outs in Nullah and Yousaf Talab in the Bara section of the Khyber tribal region.
News of the strikes spawned rumors that the government had begun a long-discussed military offensive in the lawless North Waziristan region.
But officials denied that and said the strikes were retaliatory, meant only to signal that the government would no longer take casualties lying down.
“No operation is being undertaken,” a senior security official said in Peshawar. “No ground troops were involved in the strikes.”
Ibrahim Khan, a religious leader who represents the Taliban in talks with the government, condemned the strikes in remarks to Pakistani news outlets, and he accused the government of going back on its promise of dialogue.
“A military offensive would bring the country to a verge of destruction and would result in a new wave of terrorism,” Mr. Khan was quoted as saying. “We are still ready for talks, but the decision lies with the government.”