Pakistan Again Squares Off Against Taliban in Swat

With soldiers again squaring off against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, Pakistan faces a dual test it has often failed before: fighting a counter-insurgency campaign while caring for those displaced by the conflict.

For the past several days, Pakistan's army and the Taliban have been fighting sporadically along the mountain ridges of Swat after a peace deal collapsed. Pakistani officials say they are determined that the offensive will continue until the military asserts control over the 400-square-mile area.

But even with a fresh infusion of U.S. military technology and training, it is far from clear that the army will do any better this time than last, when it was ground to a halt by the militants and entered a peace that gave control of the valley to the Taliban.

"Everyone here believes [the Taliban] are coming back," said Akmal Ali, a 21-year-old in Takht Bhai, an area near Swat that has so far remained peaceful and nominally under government control.

He recounted how Taliban fighters came through Takht Bhai earlier this week, just as the violence in Swat was intensifying. They told barbers not to shave customers and music and movie shops to shut down. "If this game continues, the militants will end up in Islamabad," Mr. Ali said.

People fleeing the now-daily bombardment of the valley say Taliban fighters are blocking roads with rocks and trees to keep residents from escaping. Some of those who are making it out say militants are sneaking out with them, warning men to keep their beards and a close eye on their women and to get ready for the consolidation of Taliban rule in the area.

Pakistan's success in preventing that will go a long way toward determining whether the nuclear-armed South Asian nation is able to reverse what top American officials and many Pakistani observers have in recent weeks warned was a slow collapse that threatens the American mission in Afghanistan and the stability of one of the world's most populous – and volatile – regions.

The Pakistani army said Friday it had lost 13 of its own men in the past 24 hours and killed 143 militants. There's been no word on civilian casualities. But front-line officers report only slight gains so far against the thousands of militants in Swat and two neighboring districts, Buner and Lower Dir.

"This is going to be hard fighting, no quarter here. These miscreants know the terrain. They are formidable," said an army major in a phone interview.

Pakistan's military, built for tank battles and artillery duels against Indian forces on the plains of the subcontinent, has in the past four years struggled through a series of campaigns against the Taliban across the mountains of northwestern Pakistan. Most, like the 18-month battle in Swat, ended in standstill.

The U.S. is stepping up its efforts to try to reshape Pakistan's military into a force that can fight insurgents in the rugged terrain along the Afghan border, where the Taliban and al Qaeda have flourished since being pushed from Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say the Americans are going to provide night-vision goggles and more helicopters. There are also plans to train Pakistani soldiers in counterinsurgency doctrine and wean them from their reliance on artillery and air power, which often flattens villages and kills more civilians than insurgents.

Still, U.S. officials privately question whether Pakistan's top brass, many of whom still see India as the real threat, are committed to reorienting their forces. "Look at what they're doing right now," said a U.S. official in Washington, referring to the air strikes and artillery bombardment against Taliban positions in Swat over the past few days. "This is why they keep losing."

Fleeing residents said innocents were being killed in the military's bombardment. "We saw many bodies rotting," said Arsala Khan, a farmer who had fled to Dargai, south of Swat, from the valley's main town, Mingora.

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday in Geneva that 500,000 people had fled the fighting in the past few days. That brings the total number of displaced since August to one million. Many are crowded into camps that are fast becoming squalid, their confidence waning that the government will provide for and protect them.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Thursday the government was setting aside $12 million for the refugees and appealed for help from abroad.

"We left everything behind, our wheat crops and small businesses," says Ghani Akbar, 37 years old, who fled Swat this week. He is now living with more than 1,000 others in neatly laid-out tents at a refugee camp in the town of Chota Lahore. "Our children ask for fruit and meat," he says, "but I have only 100 rupees," about $1.30.

Mr. Akbar, like many of the other refugees, expressed disdain for the Taliban, whom he called "rascals."

Still, the fear in Pakistan and the West is that refugees like Mr. Akbar, left with few prospects and little hope, are easy prey for the Taliban militants who inevitably infiltrate such camps, recruiting sympathizers and intimidating the rest. link...