Pakistani forces advance into Taliban heartland

Pakistani soldiers gained ground today as their offensive moved into the home city of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

Troops had secured parts of Kotkai and destroyed Mehsud’s house, but battles were continuing.

The five-day-old offensive in South Waziristan is considered a critical test of the nuclear-armed country’s campaign against Islamist extremists blamed for soaring attacks at home and on Western forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Yesterday twin suicide bombings killed six people at Islamabad’s International Islamic University in apparent retaliation for the offensive. All educational institutions in the country were closed today, showing the militants’ ability to disrupt daily life.

The military is advancing on three fronts in South Waziristan. The fight for Kotkai is symbolically important because Hakimullah Mehsud and a top deputy, Qari Hussain, hail from there. It also lies on the way to another the militant stronghold of Sararogha.

Chief military spokesman General Athar Abbas warned that the fight in South Waziristan could be long.

“This is a mountainous terrain and therefore the operations tend to be slow,”he said. The militants “are very tough fighters. They know the area, terrain. And they are very determined to fight.”

Gen. Abbas said the military believed that Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain remain in the region under fire, directing the militants’ defences. That information is based on local informants and communications intercepts, Abbas said.

The army claims to have killed 90 militants and to have lost 13 soldiers in the offensive so far.