(Click To Enlarge)On The Front Line In War On Pakistan's Taliban
-- The Guardian
-- The Guardian
High in the mountainous north west provinces of Pakistan, government forces are waging a bitter war against Taliban militants who have made the region a stronghold. As US predator drones criss-cross the sky overhead, troops on the ground endure a daily confrontation with suicide bomber attacks, mortar fire and the piercing cold
Ali Hussein, a sergeant in the Sindh Regiment of the Pakistani Army, peers over the lip of his sandbagged machinegun pit to see the following: a muddy patch of farmland divided into a chaos of individual fields, a row of slender birch trees, a dry river valley and, almost invisible among the trees half a mile away, a village called Khusar. Over his head, shells screech through the air towards its half-dozen mud-walled houses.
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My Comment: All roads for international terror lead to Pakistan. Its battles with the extremists are being closely watched by everyone .... failure will mean isolation, success will mean a closer alliance and relationship with the international community. 2009 is shaping up to be a critical year for the country.