American and Pakistani forces launch joint attack on Haqqani Network

American and Pakistani forces have launched a coordinated offensive against the Haqqani Network, the feared Taliban faction which recently attacked the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan's army chief said on Wednesday.
His confirmation came hours after Pakistan's military chief General Kayani ruled out a full scale offensive against the group and issued a stern warning to the United States against any incursion into Pakistan territory.

In a speech to members of the Pakistan National Assembly Defence Committee, General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani reminded Washington that Pakistan is a nuclear power, not another Afghanistan or Iraq, and that the United States should think "ten times" before launching a unilateral operation against the Haqqanis on Pakistani soil.

Analysts close to the Pakistan army leadership however said his comments were for "domestic consumption" and to cover Islamabad's submission to growing American demands to take action against the militant group.

General Sher Mohammad Karimi said Operation Knife Edge will target Haqqani Network fighters using the lawless border area of North Waziristan Agency in Pakistan to launch cross-border raids into Afghanistan. The militant group, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda, has also become powerful in Khost and Paktika provinces which border North Waziristan in eastern Afghanistan.

In the last few days local tribesmen have reported a "massing" of American and Afghan Army troops to seal the Pakistan border, take control of hilltop vantage points and deploy heavy artillery. Several local towns in the provinces were reported to be under curfew as house to house searches were carried out.

"The main objective of the Knife Edge operation is to clear the suspected areas based near the border of the two countries and specifically to target and finish the Haqqani network guerrillas because they are based there and both countries are suffering from them and they made security problems for both of us. This operation is also aimed to prevent Haqqani network guerrillas from entering to our country," said General Karimi.

"We do have communication with the Pakistani side. They are conducting complementary operations at the opposite site. And in any areas, we have clearance operation in our site close to bordering areas in the east," he added.

Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, said it had deployed regular army and Frontier Corps troops on its side of the border to target militants mounting raids on its own border villages and check posts from Afghanistan's Kunar, Nuristan and Ningahar provinces where "the militants are being supported locally and operating freely," he said.

"Pakistan took up the issue with the Afghan Army personnel and ISAF, but we did not see any effective operation in that area," he added.

Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, a retired senior Pakistan Army officer and respected analyst, said Islamabad was using anti-American rhetoric to cover a partial submission to increasing U.S pressure to attack the Haqqani Network.

"If the Pakistan military gives the impression it is kneeling to U.S pressure and striking at the Haqqani group, it doesn't go well and we're blamed for being lackeys of the Americans …. but you can't be an ally and do nothing. These [operations] are limited actions to push the Haqqanis towards the negotiating table," he said.
Telegraph