September
29, 2008: The Taliban and their al Qaeda
allies have been fighting a large, and losing, battle against the army in the
Pakistani region of Bajaur (right on the Afghan border). The fighting has been
going on for a month now, and the terrorists have lost about a thousand dead,
while the army has lost only 27 dead. The large disparity in losses is largely
due to the Pakistani use of air power (bombers and helicopters) and artillery.
The army controls the roads, forcing the Taliban to concentrate their forces,
to avoid getting taken apart by road (and helicopter) mobile Pakistani
infantry.
The fighting
began when the Taliban, who had always been dominant in Bajaur, sought to take
over completely and drive government officials out. The army responded with
over 10,000 troops, and more following, and went after the towns, villages and
walled compounds known to be bases for the enemy. The Taliban did not expect the
army to respond so energetically. But the Taliban had prepared ambushes along
the roads (by renting houses, and digging tunnels and bunkers next to them for
shelter from artillery and bombs). In response, the army detected these
preparations (with air reconnaissance, patrols and local informants), and
avoided, or destroyed, these positions.
The
situation has become so dire that the Bajaur Taliban has called for
reinforcements from other Taliban groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since
most of the Pakistani Taliban are tribe based, not a lot of Taliban tribesmen
have been showing up. But the al Qaeda forces (which are mostly Arabs,
Chechens, Uzbeks and other foreigners) did arrive in large numbers. Al Qaeda
gunmen were not immune to the army firepower, and four of the five known
leaders killed, and identified, were foreign al Qaeda men.
The army
believes that it will have destroyed the Taliban in Bajaur by the end of the
year. The army has openly vowed to win in Bajaur, and keep their own casualties
down while doing it. Pakistani soldiers have noted the ability of foreign and
Afghan troops to do the same in Afghanistan, and wanted to operate the same
way. This is in contrast to the way things usually work. For centuries, the
Pushtun tribes have had the edge in their own mountains and valleys, and
soldiers from the outside had a hard time of it. The Pakistani army is
determined to show that times have changed, and that the tribes are no longer
supreme in their own territory. In the past, the one tactic that worked against
the Pushtun tribes was mass murder. That's how the Mongols pacified the region,
but such wholesale destruction of villages and civilians is no longer
acceptable. However, the U.S. tactics of scouting and long range fire power
does work, even when the armed tribesmen take cover among civilians (who now do
all they can to flee when they see the fighting headed their way.)
