Pakistani forces battle Taliban in South Waziristan

Pakistani forces exchanged heavy fire on Sunday with Taliban defending their heartland, a day after launching an offensive aimed at bringing the writ of the state to lawless lands on the Afghan border. The army said 60 militants and five soldiers had been killed in the first 24 hours of a long-awaited offensive on the global Islamist hub of South Waziristan. Soldiers were securing territory while some militants were fleeing, it said. There was no independent verification of the casualty toll.

The offensive follows militant attacks in different parts of the country, including an assault on army headquarters in which more than 150 people were killed. About 28,000 soldiers are battling an estimated 10,000 hard-core Taliban, including about 1,000 Uzbek fighters and some Arab al Qaeda members. The militants have had years to prepare their defences in the land of arid mountains and sparse forest cut by dried-up creeks and ravines.

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• "Hotbed of Terror", Council on Foreign Relations, 8/11/08.
• "The Taliban of Afghanistan", Council on Foreign Relations, 8/3/09.
• "Pakistan's New Generation of Terrorists", Council on Foreign Relations, 2/6/08.
• "Pakistan's Tribal Areas", Council on Foreign Relations, 10/26/07.