More on the Taliban takeover of Shangla district
Map shamelessly lifted from the Long War Journal - thanks Mr. Roggio
From Bill Roggio.
The Taliban continue to take territory in the Northwest Frontier Province. After fighting the Pakistani military to a standstill in North Waziristan and forcibly taking over much of Swat, the Taliban have marched eastward into the settled district of Shangla.
The problem with this?
The Taliban's move into Shangla pushes the extremists even closer to Islamabad.
The problem with that?
"We can't say with absolute certainty that we know where they all are," the Washington Post quoted an unnamed former US official as saying. As for any US effort to seize and secure Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the official said: "It could be very messy."
Islamabad, Washington's key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, is believed to have about 50 nuclear-armed weapons, an arsenal it began assembling after detonating its first nuclear devices in May 1998.
More about how Shangla fell with a whimper not a bang here. And here.
While the world's attention focused on the troubles of President General Pervez Musharraf following his declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan at the weekend, the Taliban have launched a coup of their own in Afghanistan and the Pashtun areas of Pakistan. Pakistani troops had prevented the Taliban from launching their planned post-Ramadan (Muslim holy month) offensive into Afghanistan by invading the Pakistani North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on October 7.
The Taliban managed to set up a counter engagement by stirring their network in the Swat Valley in North-West Frontier Province, which took the pressure off the Waziristans. The November 4 declaration of an emergency and the preparations before it was enforced distracted the military. As a result, several villages and towns in the Swat Valley, only a drive of four hours from Islamabad, have fallen to the Taliban without a single bullet being fired - fearful Pakistani security forces simply surrendered their weapons.
I read things like this and I can better understand (and support) Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency. There's more:
The Taliban have secured similar successes in the northwestern Afghan province of Farah and the southwestern provinces of Uruzgan and Kandahar, where districts have fallen without much resistance.
A new wave of attacks is expanding the Taliban's grip in the southeastern provinces of Khost and Kunar. And on Tuesday, the Taliban are suspected to have been responsible for the massive suicide attack in northern Baghlan province in which scores of people died, including a number of parliamentarians, most notably Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, the Hazara Shi'ite leader.
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