October 25, 2001
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Taliban allies from Pakistan killed
The Atlantic Monthly cites two news items about Pakistanis that have been killed fighting alongside the Taliban
U.S. informants "were credited today with aiding" an air strike on a home in Kabul that "killed 22 members of a Pakistani militant group," which has "vowed to help defend" bin Laden and the Taliban. Pakistani military officials "said on-the-ground intelligence sources identified the building where the group was meeting." They relayed that info to U.S. commanders "who hastily ordered the strike" (Branigin/Chandrasekaran, Washington Post, 10/25).In other parts of the same report, there are indications of Taliban operations actually being run from a small town in Pakistan. Like black market economies, certain areas of developing nations are out of reach of their governments, which will make it harder to enforce the "with us or against us" doctrine. Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at October 25, 2001 04:10 PM | Technorati inbound links
The Pakistani gov't was "forced by rioting mobs to accept the bodies of eight" Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorists "killed in air raids over Kabul" on 10/22 for burial in Pakistan. "Thirty-five Harkat terrorist were killed" when the U.S. bombed the house where they were meeting. Pakistan "initially refused to let the bodies in, since accepting them would legitimize the charges that Pakistanis were fighting alongside the Taliban" (India Deccan Chronicle, 10/25).