Pak Taliban stop 7 army trucks from entering Swat stronghold

July 8th, 2009 Pakistani army: Militant leader in Swat woundedISLAMABAD — A Pakistani army spokesman says the leader of the Taliban in the Swat Valley has been wounded in an airstrike. The spokesman said Wednesday "credible information" showed Maulana Fazlullah had been hit.

July 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army has named Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem to command the Swat operation against the Taliban, a media report said Saturday.

July 3rd, 2009 LAHORE - The Pakistan Army may have been planning an all out assault against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud in his stronghold of South Waziristan, but experts believe that the operation could result in further disappointment for the United States. South Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, Daniel Markey, warned that Pakistan "may be biting off too much" by initiating an offensive against the Taliban chieftain in his stronghold without establishing total command in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

June 13th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani warplanes bombed a stronghold of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan tribal region Saturday morning, media reports said. Four fighter jets bombed parts of Makeen and other areas in South Waziristan, destroying several militant hideouts, considered as the stronghold of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud, Dawn reported, citing witness and intelligence reports.

June 5th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani has said that the military had "decisively turned the tide" against the Taliban in Swat and adjoining districts. "The tide in Swat has decisively turned and major population centres and roads leading to the valley have been largely cleared of organised resistance by the Taliban," said General Kayani while addressing the 119th Corps Commanders' Conference at General Headquarters.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army would need to stay in the Swat Valley for at least a year after its operation against the Taliban in the region is accomplished, in order to prevent the extremists from resurfacing again, a senior Army official has said. Major General Ijaz Awan, who is commanding the military's Swat offensive, said the army would have to stay in the valley for at least another year so that peace and security could be re-established.

May 30th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - The Pakistan Army has claimed that it has pushed the Taliban out of Bahrain and Peochar village in the Swat Valley, killing at least 28 insurgents including a top commander Khush Mir Khan alias Abu Huzaifa in the process. Security forces have also arrested seven Taliban from different areas of the valley.

May 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Army said Friday it had killed 55 Taliban militants while three soldiers died in fresh fighting in the northwestern district of Swat. 'Fifty-five miscreants have been killed in various areas of Swat during the last 24 hours while 3 security forces personnel died and 11 others were injured,' the army said.

May 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan security forces on Tuesday claimed to have killed at least 28 more Taliban operatives, at a key militant stronghold in the Swat Valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). According to The News, the army opened up a new front in the suspected stronghold of Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah and his top lieutenants in the northern mountains of the region.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Asif Ali Zardari has said he knew the Swat peace deal with the Taliban would not work, even as the Pakistan Army intensified its operation against the militant group in the troubled region. The Pakistani Army's advance in Swat marks the failure of Islamabad's boldest attempt yet to compromise with the Taliban.

May 4th, 2009 LAHORE - The already troubled Swat peace deal between the Pakistan Government and the Taliban received another blow when the Taliban militants attacked an Army convoy in Bari Kot region on Monday. The attack killed one soldier and injured another, the army sources disclosed.

April 26th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Heavily armed Taliban gunmen have looted at least seven trucks of chemical fertilizer used in making bombs in the Swat Valley, a report by the BBC claims. According to the security officials, Taliban looted the vehicles loaded with 'ammonium nitrate' in Chahar Bagh and Guli Bagh areas of the Valley.

April 25th, 2009 Taliban bar Pakistan army convoy as tension growsISLAMABAD — Taliban gunmen stopped an army convoy from entering their valley stronghold, casting a U.S.-criticized peace deal back into doubt a day after the militants called off a move closer to the Pakistani capital. Meanwhile, nine children were killed in the northwest Lower Dir region, when an old shell they were playing with exploded.

April 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Army must end its age old anti-India strategy and try to save Pakistan from becoming the caliphate of al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a leading Islamabad based daily. The Taliban are linked to al Qaeda and they are counting on such elements in Punjab to help them take their war down to other parts of Pakistan.

April 22nd, 2009 MINGORA - Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has said that Maulana Fazlullah is "not against the Pakistan Army" and the Taliban militants in Swat were forced to take up arms. Addressing a press conference, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the chief of Swat Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah, had never opposed the army "as an institution." "We do not want war ...