For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
Oneindia App Download

Porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border could hinder US troops surge on Taliban

By Super Admin
|
Google Oneindia News

Peshawar, May 5 (ANI): A porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan could hinder the US-led Allied military campaign to neutralize a resurgent Taliban, feel experts.

According to the New York Times, a stiff challenge awaits foreign troops from the Taliban, which knows that American forces cannot reach their sanctuaries easily in Pakistan.

US President Barack Obama is pouring in over 20,000 new troops into Afghanistan this year for a fighting season that the United States military has called a make-or-break test of the allied campaign in Afghanistan.

One Pakistani logistics tactician for the Taliban, a 28-year-old from the country's tribal areas, told the New York Times, that the Taliban strategy relies heavily on free movement over the border and in and around Pakistan, ready recruitment of Pakistani men and sustained cooperation of sympathetic Afghan villagers.

His account provided a keyhole view of the opponent the Americans and their NATO allies are up against, as well as the workings and ambitions of the Taliban as they prepared to meet the influx of American troops.

It also illustrated how the Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella group of many brands of jihadist fighters backed by Al Qaeda, are spearheading wars on both sides of the border in what for them is a seamless conflict.

He was unconcerned about US CENTCOM chief General. David H. Petraeus's plans to replicate techniques he used in Iraq in Afghanistan.

"I know of the Petraeus experiment there. But we know our Afghans. They will take the money from Petraeus, but they will not be on his side. There are so many people working with the Afghans and the Americans who are on their payroll, but they inform us, sell us weapons," he said.

He acknowledged that the Americans would have far superior forces and power this year, but was confident that the Taliban could turn this advantage on its head.

He also said that the US drone attacks have simply prompted Taliban fighters to spend more time in Afghanistan, or to move deeper into Pakistan, straddling both theaters of a widening conflict. The recruits were prepared to fight where they were needed, in either country, he added.

The Pakistani Taliban will fight as long as it takes to defeat the Americans, he said.

"At the end of this fighting season, we will have a body count, and we will see who has broken whose back," he concludes. (ANI)

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X