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U.S. sees Pakistan securing Swat before attacking Mehsud
Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:20am EDT
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By Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke hailed on Thursday the return home of many of the 2.5 million people displaced by fighting in Pakistan's Swat valley despite pockets of Taliban resistance.
Holbrooke described securing valleys, where the Pakistan army opened up an offensive against the militants more than three months ago, as the first priority.
"I think they've got their hands full in Swat and Buner, Holbrooke told journalists before leaving for Afghanistan at the end of two days of talks with the Pakistani political and military leadership in Islamabad.
Holbrooke said this was the likely reason why the army was delaying an all-out assault further west against the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in the remote South Waziristan tribal region.
"They've got to make sure when the refugees come back that they have security, so maybe they're delaying the offensive," he said, adding that he did not know the timing or nature of the looming action against Mehsud.
The United Nations said on Thursday nearly 400,000 people had returned home from the camps and makeshift shelters.
"They're returning in large numbers, thousands a day, and I think that is good news," he said.
Holbrooke spoke of the heavy U.S. financial assistance for Pakistan's government, military and its displaced people, and said that he hoped to announce help for Pakistan to overcome crippling power generation shortages when he returned next month.
PAKISTANI PRIORITIES
The Pakistani government gave orders to the army a month ago to go after Mehsud, who leads a loose grouping of some 13 Taliban factions dotted across the northwest.
Mehsud has come under frequent air and artillery bombardment since then but there are few signs of an imminent ground assault on his redoubt in the mountains.
The army is probably waiting to free up some of the 20,000 troops currently deployed in Swat, according to diplomats who follow military affairs.
Although Mehsud has helped provide fighters for the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and trained suicide bombers to attack Afghan and Western forces, most of his focus has been on attacking the Pakistani state.
Several diplomats in Islamabad doubted whether eliminating Mehsud would provide any great strategic value for Western forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, but Holbrooke disagreed.
"I think Baitullah Mehsud is one of the most dangerous and odious people in the region and the United States had paid insufficient attention to him until recently," he said. Continued...
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