Time to make a decision about attacking Taliban in Baluchistan

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Afstan: Getting the Quetta Shura Taliban in US sights Further to this post,

Time to make a decision about attacking Taliban in Baluchistan

the Americans are upping the pressure on the Paks (and it's important
for the CF across from the Baluchistan border at Kandahar):

The Obama administration is turning up the pressure on Pakistan to
fight the Taliban inside its borders, warning that if it does not act
more aggressively the United States will use considerably more force
on the Pakistani side of the border to shut down Taliban attacks on
American forces in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials said.

The blunt message was delivered in a tense encounter in Pakistan last
month, before President Obama announced his new war strategy, when
Gen. James L. Jones, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, and John
O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, met with the heads
of Pakistan’s military and its intelligence service.

United States officials said the message did not amount to an
ultimatum, but rather it was intended to prod a reluctant Pakistani
military to go after Taliban insurgents in Pakistan who are directing
attacks in Afghanistan.

For their part the Pakistanis interpreted the message as a fairly bald
warning that unless Pakistan moved quickly to act against two Taliban
groups they have so far refused to attack, the United States was
prepared to take unilateral action to expand Predator drone attacks
beyond the tribal areas and, if needed, to resume raids by Special
Operations forces into the country against Al Qaeda and Taliban
leaders.

A senior administration official, asked about the encounter, declined
to go into details but added quickly, “I think they read our
intentions accurately.”

A Pakistani official who has been briefed on the meetings said,
“Jones’s message was if that Pakistani help wasn’t forthcoming, the
United States would have to do it themselves.”

American commanders said earlier this year that they were considering
expanding drone strikes in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas [i.e.
Quetta area], but General Jones’s comments marked the first time that
the United States bluntly told Pakistan it would have to choose
between leading attacks against the insurgents inside the country’s
borders or stepping aside to let the Americans do it...

Even before Mr. Obama announced his decision last week, the White
House had approved an expansion of the C.I.A.’s drone program in
Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas. A missile strike from what was said
to be a United States drone in the tribal areas killed at least three
people early Tuesday, according to Pakistani intelligence officials,
The Associated Press reported.

Pakistani officials, wary of civilian casualties and the appearance of
further infringement of national sovereignty, are still in discussions
with American officials over whether to allow the C.I.A. to expand its
missile strikes into Baluchistan for the first time [emphasis added] —
a politically delicate move because it is outside the tribal areas.
American commanders say this is necessary because Mullah Omar, the
Taliban leader who ran Afghanistan before the 2001 invasion, and other
Taliban leaders are hiding in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan
Province.

Pakistani officials also voice concern that if the Pakistani Army were
to aggressively attack the two groups that most concern the United
States — the Afghan Taliban leaders and the Haqqani network based in
North Waziristan — the militants would respond with waves of
retaliatory bombings, further undermining the weak civilian
government...


http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2009/12/afstan-getting-quetta-shura-taliban-in.html