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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan secures key Swat Valley city |
| 2009-05-30 |
| ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistani military says security forces have taken back the city of Mingora from the Taliban, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the Taliban. Mingora is the largest city in Pakistan's Swat Valley where security forces have been fighting the Taliban in a month-long offensive. "It is a great accomplishment," said Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. "This is the largest city in Swat and for all practical purposes, Mingora has been secured." Abbas said militants put up a stiff resistance, but their resistance weakened as troops moved in. Abbas told CNN pockets of militants remain just outside Mingora. The fighting has uprooted about 2.4 million Pakistanis from their homes in the northwestern region of the country, according to the latest data from the United Nations. Of those displaced, about 10 percent -- or 240,000 -- are living in refugee camps, according to the U.N. The announcement that the military has pushed the Taliban out of Mingora comes after days of Taliban attacks in other areas in the country. Pakistani authorities increased security throughout Islamabad on Friday after a string of deadly bombings in Lahore and Peshawar, and a threat by the Taliban to carry out further attacks. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide attack in Lahore on a building housing police, intelligence and emergency offices that killed 27 people. The militant group also threatened to continue attacking cities in Pakistan until the military ends its operations against Taliban militants in the country's northwest. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #3 Play4Keeps, Coalition troops have been doing rotation after rotation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with very little break in between to recover, refit and retrain. You'll note I write Coalition, because it's not been only American troops keeping that schedule. Would you have had them fighting without a break for the last six years straight? We simply haven't had either the manpower or the war materiel to maintain two active fronts along with all the other areas they've been covering (supra- and sub-Saharan Africa just for starters, plus lots of other places neither of us know anything about). Let's hope reports from Pakistan are true, and not just Pakistani wishful thinking or byzantine scheming, to both of which they are sadly prone. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-05-30 23:02 |
| #2 This offensive is very good but it is 8 (BUSH) years late in coming. Whatever the US does won't be seen in the media as helping. So who cares? Let's support the Pakistani's and our President and military leaders and find the Al Qaeda /Taliban and wipe them out. Then maybe there can be change. |
| Posted by: Play4Keeps 2009-05-30 20:07 |
| #1 Very Good News Now. I really Hope OBAMA now presses Pakistan to attack Taliban in Bin LadenÂ’s lair SO FAR SO GOOD :) |
| Posted by: Play4Keeps 2009-05-30 20:02 |