Pakistan launches attack on radio mullah's turf

NY Times:

Stepping up a major offensive against Taliban militants, the Pakistani military said Tuesday that helicopter-borne troops had landed for the first time at Peochar, an insurgent stronghold in the contested Swat Valley northwest of the capital.

Peochar is the headquarters of Mullah Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric also known as the “radio mullah” because of his incendiary broadcasts to the region, who is leading the militants in Swat. He is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the main negotiator of a contentious peace deal in Swat struck last February which has now unraveled.

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A military statement said helicopters dropped commandos behind Taliban lines in the remote upper part of the Swat Valley, but gave no details of the assault, news reports said.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister, insisted on Tuesday that the militants were on the retreat in Swat. But, speaking to reporters, he declined to explain his assertion and said he could not say when the military offensive would end.

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General Abbas said the troops dropped in the Peochar area were “to conduct search and destroy operations.”

In a separate development, at least eight people were killed when an American drone struck in the South Waziristan region straddling the border with Afghanistan, residents said. South Waziristan is the stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan. The identities of those killed were not immediately known.

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The government is also batting around some casualty figures that cannot be confirmed and are probably just guesstimates at best. Since it has yet to establish control over the battle space it is difficult for the government forces to say haw many enemy have been killed. The earlier reports of around 140 seem low and the new ones of over 700 seem high.

The "search and destroy" mission appears to be at best a reconnaissance in force. It is hard to get a grip on the geography at this point but the Pakistan troops should be setting up block positions to stop the escape of the Taliban being attacked in Swat and that may be what this force is doing.

The story does not indicate whether the radio mullah has broadcast anything about the assualt, but my speculation is that he is too bush retreating at this point.