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| India-Pakistan |
| Terrorist camp may hold clues to Taliban operations |
| 2009-06-24 |
| GHAR-E-HIRA CAMP: Deep in the tunnel, a small wooden cabinet is the only piece of furniture, a syringe still in its plastic wrapper and a disposable razor scattered on the shelves. A pair of sky-blue pants lies on the rocky ground by the remnants of a threadbare sleeping mat. "This was their safest haven," said Waseem Shafique, a Pakistani Army major whose men stumbled onto this hand-hewn cave and the militant camp around it earlier this month. "Nothing can touch them in here, it is safe from shelling, they cannot be seen." Rare insight: The hillside camp offers rare insight into conditions, tools and tactics being used by the Taliban. It may also be a foreboding sign of the much tougher fight to come as the military moves into the grotto and tunnel-ridden Waziristan region, the scene of the next operation where battle-hardened militants have had much longer to dig in. The military took a small media group on Saturday to view the Ghar-e-Hira Camp, a facility spread over three tiers cut into a pine-forested hillside in the upper reaches of the Swat Valley. A simple tunnel system formed the Taliban's living quarters -- a 120-foot-deep corridor chipped into the rock hillside -- with two antechambers branching off in a rough T-shape. Shreds of clothes lay scattered on the ground along with the scraps of sleeping mats. The battered cabinet leaned precariously, charred by a kerosene fire set in the tunnel by troops. Outside, soldiers displayed items found in the tunnel and a smaller cave they said was an ammunition store: a machine gun and ammo belts, a pistol, mortar rounds, and an empty box of rocket-propelled grenades stamped 'government explosive' in English. The government was not identified, and soldiers said they could not identify the box as Pakistani or otherwise. There were bags of gunpowder, two small pipe bombs, a half-dozen alarm clocks and television remote controls - the makings of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that are often used to attack security forces convoys in Pakistan's northwest. In the kitchen area nearby, a pot of sweetened rice sat rotting - evidence of the soldiers' account that the camp was discovered on June 11 as the Taliban were preparing breakfast. The Taliban spotted a patrol on a nearby ridge and dropped what they were doing to open fire. Dangerous Taliban regrouping: In another worrying sign, commanders and experts warn that some of the most formidable Taliban leaders and fighters who have escaped from Swat may be heading for the tribal zone of South Waziristan. Asad Munir, a former intelligence chief with responsibility for the tribal zone, said militants there would welcome fellow Taliban from Swat who volunteer for a fresh battle in South Waziristan. "Foot soldiers, the remnants from the Taliban side in Swat, they would be coming to South Waziristan to reinforce Baitullah's forces," he said. "Fighters would also be coming from the Afghan side." Maj Gen Sajjad Ghani, the Swat offensive's northern commander, said foreigners were among the roughly 100 fighters at the camp, and that some were killed. Officials also showed journalists a grainy photograph of several corpses, but their ethnicity was not discernible. Ghani said it was easy to spot foreigners by their different appearance from Pakistanis, and named Afghans, Chechens, Uzbeks and Tajiks as among those believed to be in the camp. |
| Posted by:Fred |