Pakistan Army kills 29 Taliban near Afghan border

The Pakistani military killed 29 Taliban fighters on Wednesday in the final stage of an operation aimed at forcing hundreds of insurgents back across the border into Afghanistan.

Soldiers used artillery, helicopter gunships and fighter jets against the insurgents, accused of beheading 17 Pakistani soldiers in June. The battle was the culmination of weeks of operations in the remote valleys of the Batwar area of Bajaur tribal agency near the border. It highlighted once again the difficulty of preventing insurgents from crossing the border to launch attacks or flee from Pakistani or NATO forces bolstering the Afghan government. Around 400 militants had crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan on August 23 and attacked villages, said a senior security official based in Khar, the main town of Bajaur. The army launched operations that killed around 120 militants, another security official said from the border town of Peshawar. Twenty-five soldiers also died in the fighting.

www.reuters.com...

This is for people who say that Pakistan is playing a 'double game'. Pakistan has probably suffered the most in this war of terror.

Anyway, my question is, how are the Taliban allowed to flee back to Afghanistan? Where are the NATO forces on the other side?

tmo.mw.cnn.com...:newsml:CNN.com:20120918:afghanistan-operations-halt:1&branding=&category=cnnd_world&pages ize=10

NATO suspended all operations apparently

Originally posted by GLaDOS
Anyway, my question is, how are the Taliban allowed to flee back to Afghanistan? Where are the NATO forces on the other side?

edit on 19/9/2012 by GLaDOS because: (no reason given)

It seems to me that the area around Peshawar is mostly mountains. It seems like a pretty porous border and the chances of finding a NATO force simply patrolling the region seems pretty slim.

Well, why not use the C130 gunships like on the Ho Chi Mihn Trail.
The country is NOT triple canopy jungle, and theres no such massive cover to operate under.
The C130 snoopy ships had capability to see in dark and through the jungle canopy somewhat.....
Their firepower is awesome, and they could loiter a long time .......with extra tanks for fuel even longer.
They could be an answer to the need for survielance as they can operate 24/7 and have a 105 howitzer as well as 40mm cannon etc......
.They could be eyes in the sky with teeth. and real men operating them.....

Originally posted by stirling
They could be an answer to the need for survielance as they can operate 24/7 and have a 105 howitzer as well as 40mm cannon etc......
.They could be eyes in the sky with teeth. and real men operating them.....

No, they can't operate 24/7. One reason being is that they only have X number of them. It's difficult to keep an asset like that, that's in high demand, orbiting an area just for a chance shot at a bunch of badguys. It's better to have them on call.

And, more importantly, they don't operate in the daylight. Google "Spirit 03".

Well they get like 800 million a year from US to be stationed on the border, because Pakistan cannot afford to station them there and feed them, logtistics and such.

Originally posted by GLaDOS
Anyway, my question is, how are the Taliban allowed to flee back to Afghanistan? Where are the NATO forces on the other side?

They drop/hide their guns and play dumb and walk back to their houses/villages