| Since they sprung 250 Bad Guyz, I guess there's lots of room in the local calaboose. Time to go get more for the catch and release program... |
Over 2,000 Pakistani soldiers backed by artillery and sophisticated weapons launched a major operation yesterday against foreign militants and a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Abdullah Mehsud, accused of targeting security forces in a tense tribal region near Afghanistan, a military commander said. Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top commander in northwestern Pakistan, said about 2,000 soldiers also took part in the operation that began at dawn in South Waziristan to capture "foreign miscreants" and Mehsud.
| Y'gotta watch those "miscreants." They're the ones responsible for the litter problem in South Waziristan, y'know... |
"The troops have met some resistance and the operation will continue till the area is purged of miscreants," he told reporters in Peshawar. The troops were trying to secure militant strongholds northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan's tribal district. Yesterday's operation is part of a broader military drive launched in March to flush out Al-Qaeda. Mehsud is accused of masterminding the kidnapping last month of two Chinese engineers in South Waziristan where they were building a dam. One of the Chinese men was killed and the other was rescued alive by commandos. Mehsud, 28, was freed in March after about two years' detention at the US prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
| He was just a simple tribesman, you know, in the wrong place at the wrong time, all a big misunderstanding. He was actually doing charity work, handing out feed for the baby ducks in the area. Just ask Amnesty International... |
Since his return he has emerged as a rebel leader, opposing Pakistan's army as it hunts remnants of Al-Qaeda in the country's semiautonomous tribal regions. Hussain said the troops this week searched Mehsud's home in the South Waziristan village of Nano, about 320 km from Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, but found no one.
| "Yeah. We asked around. Nobody's seen him." |
He said Mehsud might be hiding in caves in the area. Hussain vowed the current operation, around Nano and surrounding villages, would continue until Mehsud and other "miscreants" were arrested. "The miscreants are in total disarray. They are on the run and we are chasing them," he said.
| "Nano nano! Fly, little brother and be free!" |
He said the army was using artillery and helicopter gunships and facing some resistance. In the first few hours of the operation, troops had seized a cache of weapons from militant hide-outs. It was not clear if there had been any casualties. |