No time frame for anti-Taliban operations: Pakistani defence minister

September 3rd, 2009 RAWALPINDI - The lessons learnt from the military's anti-Taliban operations in the country's restive northwest were reviewed by the Pakistani Army at the Corps Commanders conference that began here Thursday. Quoting military sources, Online news agency reported that during the course of the conference, the constructive and positive strategies of Pakistan Army in Operation Rah-e-Rast in the Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) were discussed.

August 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has lauded Pakistan for its successful military operations against the Taliban in the country. Holbrooke said the US has close contacts with the Pakistani leadership and is providing technical assistance to combat terrorism.

July 24th, 2009 SWAT - A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban has said militant leader Maulana Fazlullah is in good health, rejecting the claims by security forces that he was wounded in a military offensive in the country's northwest, the Online news agency reported. Pakistan military spokesman Maj.

July 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said senior Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah has been seriously injured in fighting in the Swat Valley. In an interview with BBC, Malik said the Taliban militants are currently on the run, but the Pakistani forces will soon capture them.

June 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani Monday flew a combat mission against the Taliban, riding as the co-pilot in an F-16 jet for an aerial overview of the offensive against the militants in the country's restive northwest. In doing so, he became the first army chief to fly in an F-16 jet.

June 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US has thrown its full weight behind Pakistan's anti-Taliban military operations in its restive northwest, with two officials saying Washington would provide whatever assistance was required for their successful conclusion. "Wherever those threats exist, we would be encouraging of the Pakistani military taking it to them head on and defeating them," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said at a briefing here Monday.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - America's top trouble shooter for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke arrived here Wednesday on a three-day visit to study the military's anti-Taliban operations in the country's restive northwest and to assess the needs of the millions of people who have been displaced by the fighting. Soon after his arrival here, Holbrooke went into a meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

May 21st, 2009 TORONTO - Canada has hinted at lifting its embargo on the sale of weapons to Pakistan. Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who is currently in Pakistan, told a Canadian newspaper that his government might soon end its 11-year embargo on the sale of arms to Islamabad.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Barack Obama administration would love to see India and Pakistan re-engage in confidence-building measures and talk about Kashmir and other areas of difference, according to a top defence department official. 'There is a lot they can do to lower tensions, and they had done a lot before the Mumbai attacks,' Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defence for policy said in an interview with the Defence Writers' Group posted on the department website.

May 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - More than 80 Taliban militants have been killed in overnight operations by the Pakistani troops in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), an official said Wednesday. Two security personnel were also killed and 18 others injured in the operations in various districts in NWFP, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said at a press conference.

May 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Taliban fighters are shaving their beards to mingle with the civilians fleeing the security forces' operations in Swat in Pakistan's troubled northwest, the military said Friday, on a day when the country's army chief briefed parliament on the offensive. 'We request the civil population of Swat to come forward and help the security forces in identifying the Taliban terrorists.

May 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The security forces are ensuring that collateral damage is minimised in their operations against the Taliban in Pakistan's troubled northwest, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani informed parliament Friday.

May 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Friday called for a political solution to restore peace in the country's restive northwest after the military concludes its operations to eliminate the Taliban in the area. 'The situation is not normal, militants have threatened the very fabric of our society, by trying to impose their will through coercive measures,' he said in his opening remarks ahead of an in-camera briefing by Pakistani Army chief Gen.

February 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A leading Pakistani newspaper Sunday urged the government to continue its war against the Taliban but called for a change in tactics to end civilian casualties. 'There can be no let up in military operations until the obscurantists have been routed, and dictated to in a manner supported by the majority of the nation,' the Dawn said in an editorial.

February 4th, 2009 KABUL - Afghanistan's Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak has said that 60 percent of the Taliban militants were foreigners, an Afghan newspaper reported Thursday. 'Over 60 percent of anti-government militants are foreign nationals,' daily Arman-e-Millie quoted the minister as saying.