Word: waziristan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...centuries. Last month, it was the Pakistani army's turn. In an April 17 ceremony, Pakistani Lieut. General Safdar Hussain signed a truce with the leaders of the tribal forces, ending a brief, bloody and largely ineffective campaign to root out extremist militants and terrorists hiding among sympathizers in Waziristan's villages. Hussain showed up for the cease-fire ceremony unarmed, as agreed. But if the Pakistani officer expected his adversaries to reciprocate by laying down their weapons, he was disappointed. Accompanied by some 7,000 defiant tribesmen, some waving guns, rebel leaders, including former Taliban commander Nek Mohammed, appeared...
...search-and-destroy mission. The quarry: top Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters believed to be hiding out in tribal lands since being routed from Afghanistan three years ago by U.S.-led coalition forces. Some optimists even thought Osama bin Laden might be plotting his next attacks from Waziristan and could be snared there. But after several weeks of ambushes and the shelling of villages, the campaign was abandoned as the army death toll mounted in the face of fierce resistance from Wazir defending their homes. At least 63 Pakistani soldiers were killed (although unofficial accounts put military casualties at more...
...operations were halted because it had succeeded in "smashing" terrorist bases. But no senior al-Qaeda or Taliban member was caught. A Pakistani official who brokered the truce says the deal included a guarantee from tribal leaders that "non-Pakistanis"--Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks--would no longer cross from Waziristan to ambush U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But local officials in Waziristan say that promise is not enforceable. What's more, the truce raises doubts about the resolve of the Pakistanis to root out al-Qaeda fugitives from the tribal areas. Said a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul...
...Pakistani general helicoptered into a village in the Pakistani mountains of Waziristan last weekend to meet with a stubborn enemy. Lieut. General Safdar Hussain came to sign a truce with Nek Mohammed, a tribal leader whose pro-al-Qaeda fighters had eluded capture for more than six weeks and had killed about 80 of the general's men. The Pakistani army agreed to halt its operation against Mohammed's militants, repay Wazir tribesmen for war damages and set free most of the 160 suspected al-Qaeda supporters who were captured. The tribesmen were also allowed to keep their weapons...
...invaded Afghanistan in 2001. In fact, an Uzbek who has followed the IMU closely says the group was just "lying low." One of its main founders, Tokhir Yuldashev, found refuge in Pakistan's tribal areas, where he was reportedly injured by Pakistani forces in the recent fighting in South Waziristan. "The key thing," says an Uzbek opposition figure, "is that the IMU has become strong enough to raise its head again." At the end of the week the Karimov regime was claiming it had "decapitated" the "evil forces." But critics say that the brutal repression of any independent movements...