Taliban trying to suck Pakistan army onto its turf?

NY Times:

The Pakistani military moved deeper into South Waziristan on Sunday, hitting Taliban targets with F-16 fighter jets, as troops supported by helicopter gunships climbed higher into the mountainous terrain, according to military personnel and a spokesman for the militants.

Pakistani Air Force fighter jets struck the militant-held towns of Makeen, Ladha and Kotkai in the heart of Taliban territory, and ground forces have occupied territory on the edge of the militant enclave, Pakistani military personnel said.

Sounding a confident tone on the second day of the campaign against Taliban and Qaeda forces, a senior military official said “the level of resistance from the militants is not very high.” Even so, said the official, who declined to be identified, the area had been heavily mined and Pakistani forces had encountered a lot of homemade bombs.

But the Taliban said part of their strategy was to encourage the military to progress deeper into the militant enclave in the center of South Waziristan, and then tie the soldiers down with hit-and-run tactics that would keep the soldiers in a protracted campaign in the inhospitable terrain over the winter.

The government forces would be hit hard once they penetrated further into the mountains, the favorite fighting areas for the militants, a Taliban organizer who is not involved in the current fighting said by telephone on Sunday from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan.

As Pakistan’s boldest and most difficult offensive against the Taliban unfolded, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American military commander for the region, arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to consult with Pakistan’s military leadership and civilian government.

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The Americans have quietly provided the Air Force with new imaging systems for the F-16s that the Pakistani military says will be crucial in South Waziristan, according to an American official familiar who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Pakistani air force had identified more than 100 targets for airstrikes in South Waziristan, many of which were hit in preliminary operations in the past week, the American official said.

The Pakistanis were loath to publicize the upgraded American imaging systems for the F-16s, which were also acquired from the United States, because of the deep well of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, the American official said.

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There is much more.

I think the F-16 upgrades were provided late last year by the Bush administration. At the time I indicated they would be worth the investment if the Pakistan air force used them to attack the Taliban bases, and so far they have done so. Whether the Pakistanis are "loathed" to admit they are getting help from the US, their government is certainly glad to get it.

The Taliban strategy is pretty much standard for the area and belies the early reports of sharp clashes. It is probably the best they can do, but with the size of the force Pakistan is putting in now, it is unlikely to be successful. It is much more successful when armies deploy and inadequate force to space ratio and the troops are left to play whack-a-mole with the insurgents. When there are adequate forces, the troops can set up check points and cut off the Taliban's movement to contact or to set up booby traps. The army can also cut off the Taliban's lines of retreat if they have an adequate force to space ratio.