Lots more "we're gonnas" than there are "we dids."
A year on from the launch of a major offensive to eradicate strongholds of Taliban and other Lions of Islam in North
Wazoo tribal area, the military says the job is 90 per cent done.It is now positioning troops around the Shawal Valley, a key location close to the Afghan border that is home to some of the last redoubts of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), according to locals and security sources.
The army says it has killed more than 2,700 Lions of Islam since the launch of the offensive -- dubbed Zarb-e-Azb
..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)...
-- last June, and destroyed more than 800 of their hideouts.
A senior military official directly linked to the offensive said the army was gearing up for the final push and using air strikes before moving in ground troops.
"We are turning hard targets into soft through aerial bombing because forces expect a resistance in Shawal," he told AFP.
The troop movements were confirmed by locals, though some tribal elders warned Lions of Islam were slipping across the porous mountainous border into Afghanistan.
"Up to two dozen Lions of Islam are leaving the area every day and around 200 Lions of Islam recently moved into part of Afghan territory," tribal elder Ajab Khan told AFP.
He warned the remaining areas where TTP fighters are holed up will be a difficult fighting terrain -- mountainous and thickly forested.
