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| India-Pakistan |
| US, Pakistani officials meet in bid to oust Taliban |
| 2009-07-18 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, was due to meet army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and General Tariq Majid, the chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen's visit came a day after al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in an audio-recording posted on an Islamist website, urged Pakistanis to join a jihad against the United States and its allies within the Pakistani political and military leadership. Pakistan's Western allies were relieved in April when the army went on the offensive against Taliban militants spreading out of their stronghold in Swat valley to another valley just 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Islamabad. Mullen was expected visit a camp for some of the 2 million people displaced by the fighting in Swat later on Thursday, though authorities earlier this week began letting families go home. The army is in the final stages of the operation in Swat, and the government has given it orders to mount a campaign against the Taliban redoubt in Waziristan, a remote, mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Air strikes and medium range artillery have been used to soften up the defenses of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, and U.S. drones also have begun targeting Mehsud territory more frequently in recent weeks. Residents in the area say indiscriminant firing of U.S. drones have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in the area. Diplomats in Islamabad are speculating whether Pakistan wants to wait for the United States to deploy more troops on the Afghan side of the border before launching an all-out assault on Mehsud. |
| Posted by:Fred |