Pakistan Finally Attacks the Haqqani in North Waziristan
The military operation named ‘Zarb-i-Azb’ was initiated in the North Waziristan region in June. At least 430,000 people have fled the region into nearby areas of Pakistan as well as neighboring Afghanistan, the biggest movement of refugees in Pakistan in years. Pakistani jets and tanks moved into the area and openly announced the offensive is directed at eliminating the Haqqani network living freely and openly there in the area's largest city, Miram Shah.
The initial salvo had Pakistani armor, jets and artillery conducting extensive bombardments on suspected terrorist areas. The area has many foreign terrorists. as well. Pakistan asked Afghanistan to be prepared to kill terrorists who might flee across the border.
This area of Pakistan is considered to be akin to America's "old wild west". Thousands of terrorists and other nefarious people live there that is seldom controlled by Pakistan frontier forces, which are bought off. The Haqqani and other groups live there with a sense of invincibility because Pakistan's military up to now has been afraid to invade the area. All these groups have ties with al-Qaeda and others and all seek to carry out the jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have different agendas.
Pakistan claims to have killed over 500 terrorists but there is no way to confirm this. In order to conduct this large offensive, Pakistan shifted more than 70,000 troops from the country’s border with India. This alone took a lot of nerve because of the tension between the two countries that are only in the imagination of Pakistani leaders. India would have nothing to gain by attacking Pakistan. Pakistan now has 147,000 armed forces in the northwestern regions.
The question is will this have any real impact? Not if the terrorists flee across the border and Afghanistan does little about it because once the Pakistan army leaves, they return.
