TRIBAL UPRISING BEGINS IN WAZIRISTAN?

What helped kill Al Qaeda in Anbar was the tribal strategy - getting the Sunni tribes on our side.

This Sunni uprising was the anvil to our hammer.

We smashed 'em.

There are signs that the same thing is happening in Pakistan's tribal region, specifically Waziristan (DAWN/AFP): Tribesmen raising anti-Al Qaeda Lashkar

WANA, Jan 9: Thousands of armed tribesmen of South Waziristan met here on Wednesday, vowing to organise a Lashkar to hunt down Al Qaeda-linked militants blamed for killing nine of their kinsmen.

The tribal jirga in Wana came three days after militants stormed two offices and killed nine tribal elders of a government-sponsored peace committee.

The jirga ordered tribesmen from every household belonging to the Wazir tribe to come to Wana with arms to prepare for action, a local official said.

“One man from each house should come to Wana with a gun at 10am on Thursday to plan our defence and act against those who are responsible for disorder,” tribal chief Malik Ghaffar told the gathering.

Wazir tribe chief Maulvi Nazir, who earned fame after he drove out hundreds of Uzbeks from the region last year in bloody clashes, is expected to address the Lashkar on Thursday.

He did not turn up at Wednesday’s meeting but had earlier blamed Baitullah Mehsud, a local Al Qaeda commander and leader of the rival Mehsud tribe, for the killing of the peace committee members.

Residents have reported that announcements have been made on a public address system asking Mehsud tribesmen to “leave Wana to avoid losses”.

Baitullah Mehsud is accused by the government of masterminding a spate of suicide attacks in the country, including the December 27 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi. Mehsud has denied any involvement in the killing.

• This comes as Musharraf is turning up the heat with more forces and a new harsh governor. (See earlier post here.)

• And as we prepare to send an additional 3000 troops to the border with Afghanistan.

HEY... YO: BINLADEN... ZAWAHIRI: THE CLOCK IS TICKING...

US TO HELP PAKISTAN IMPLEMENT THE TRIBAL STRATEGY

• I FIRST POSTED ON THE TRIBAL STRATEGY IN THE GWOT WAY BACK IN OCTOBER OF 2006 - WELL BEFORE THE SURGE WAS EVEN A THOUGHT OF.

• OUR VERSION OF IT WORKED IN ANBAR.

• MUSHARRAF'S VERSION DIDN'T WORK AS WELL IN WAZIRISTAN.

• NOW HE WILL USE OUR TACTICS. (Via Hot Air.)
  

GOOD.

DON'T BELIEVE THE DEFEATISTS: WE'RE KICKING AL QAEDA'S ASS IN AFGHANISTAN

BBC:

US and Afghan forces searching for militants on the Pakistani border have inflicted heavy casualties on al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, officials say.

The governor of Ningrahar province said that the operation in Tora Bora was going "very well" and that al-Qaeda and the Taleban had suffered heavy losses.

But a spokesman for the governor, Nooar Agha Zwak, said he could not give precise casualty details.

Officials in Ningrahar say the area has many Afghan and foreign militants.

'Precision munitions'

Local residents say that so far around 250 families have fled the area after two days of fighting, in which US and Afghan air and ground forces pounded al-Qaeda militants.

The US military said that "al-Qaeda and other violent extremist fighters" had been engaged in the fighting during a "combined arms assault using precision munitions".

US air strikes on Tora Bora in December 2001

There were no substantiated reports of civilian casualties in the fighting, a statement said, contradicting earlier reports that many civilians had been killed.

AY, YO, OBAMA: STFU!

MORE EVIDENCE THAT THE TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING - FROM PAKISTAN

BBC: Pakistan army joins tribal fight

Militant in South Waziristan Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has admitted publicly for the first time that the army has helped tribal fighters battling foreign militants. He said local Pashtuns had killed about 300 foreign militants in several weeks of clashes near the Afghan border. Local sources put the figure much lower, at fewer than 100.

The army had denied any role in the fighting but now says it is helping locals drive out foreigners, among them al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters. ... President Musharraf was addressing a military conference in the capital, Islamabad. "The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners," he told those present. They have killed about 300 of them, and they got support from the Pakistan army. They asked for support. We are demanding the same in North Waziristan, and there are indications the same may happen there also," he said. ...

Heavy clashes broke out in South Waziristan on 19 March, sparked by a demand from a tribal leader that Uzbek militants in the area leave or disarm. The tribesmen proclaimed victory earlier this week, saying the foreigners had been driven out of their bunkers. Their claim was backed by the army. President Musharraf said that the latest developments vindicated his policy of signing peace deals with local tribes, despite criticism from Western allies.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS HAS BLOGGED ON THIS STRATEGY, EXTENSIVELY, POINTING OUT THAT IT IS WORKING IN ANBAR AND WAZIRISTSAN. (WE WERE NEARLY ALONE IN PREDICTING IT WOULD WORK AND IN CONCLUDING THAT THE WAZIRISTAN ACCORD WAS GOOD.) MORE HERE.

And more here.

FROM PAKISTAN, MORE PROOF TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING

REUTERS (UK):

The Pakistan army moved into a known stronghold of foreign al Qaeda militants near the Afghan border after a tribal militia battled the Islamist militants this week, residents and officials said on Saturday.

Ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in the South Waziristan region vowed last month to expel the foreign jihadists, most of them Uzbeks, from their lands. More than 200 foreigners and up to 50 tribal fighters have been killed in clashes since then, government officials say.

Pakistani troops were deployed on Friday evening in mountainous Shin Warsak, about 10 km (6 miles) west of South Waziristan's main town of Wana. ... The army moved into bunkers the foreign jihadists built in the mountains. It was the first movement of Pakistani troops outside Wana in the tribal region since the government struck a peace deal with tribal elders in February 2005.

... Thousands of foreign fighters, including Uzbeks, Chechans and Arabs, fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal lands after U.S.-led forces defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

After unsuccessful military campaigns to clear al Qaeda nests from Waziristan, the government made pacts with tribesmen in the hope of driving a wedge between them and the foreign fighters.

Critics say the pacts risked creating a sanctuary for al Qaeda and the Taliban, but the military said the clashes in South Waziristan showed the strategy was working.

PREVIOUS POSTS ON THE TRIBAL STRATEGY - WHICH APPEARS TO BE WORKING IN THE SUNNI TRIANGLE OF IRAQ AS WELL AS IN PAKISTAN - HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE. ORIGINAL POST HERE.

RELIAPUNDIT WAS RIGHT: THE TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING

YAHOO/AFP:

Pakistani tribesmen attacked foreign Al-Qaeda militants hiding in bunkers in ongoing clashes that killed five people in the nation's lawless tribal region, officials and residents said. ...

They seized seven bunkers dug into a mountain from where the Uzbek militants and their Chechen and Arab allies could launch attacks on the main town of Wana, they said."The foreign militants fled. They suffered casualties but details were not available," a security official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

CHECHENS, USBEKS, ARABS... MORE PROOF THAT WW4 IS GLOBAL JIHAD... AND THAT THE TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING. WHY? THE tribes - here in Waziristan (and in the Sunni triangle) - ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR OWN INTEREST - AND OURS: FREEDOM FROM JIHADO-MANIACS.

WHEN WILL: THE DEMOCRATS AND THE LEFT JOIN THE GOOD FIGHT!?!?!?!?!?!?!

MORE PROOF THAT THE NEW TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING

MANY BERATED "THE WAZIRISTAN ACCORD" (SIGNED LAST OCTOBER) BETWEEN MUSHARRAF AND THE TRIBES. THEY SAID HE WAS CAPITULATING.

I DISAGREED; I ALONE SAID THAT IT REALLY JUST HERALDED A NEW TRIBAL STRATEGY - ONE WHICH WOULD CO-OPT THE TRIBES INTO FIGHTING AND ELIMINATING THE FOREIGN FIGHTERS.

MUSHARRAF JUST SIGNED ANOTHER SIMILAR ACCORD WITH OTHER TRIBAL LEADERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE TRIBAL REGIONS ON THE BORDER WITH AFGHANISTAN.

AND THE SAME NAYSAYERS ARE REPEATEING THEIR DEFEATIST ATTACKS. THEY WERE WRONG IN OCTOBER AND THEY ARE WRONG NOW.

THIS BBC NEWS ITEM IS FURTHER PROOF:

50 people have been killed after rising tension between local tribesmen and foreign militants in north-west Pakistan erupted into fierce fighting. Heavy shelling has raged since Monday near Wana in the South Waziristan tribal area close to Afghanistan.

Most of those killed were militants from Uzbekistan suspected of links with al-Qaeda, officials said.

THIS IS SIMILAR TO WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN IRAQ'S ANBAR PROVINCE: THE SUNNI TRIBES ARE ATTACKING AL QAEDA, AND KILLING THEM AND EXPELLING THEM - SEE HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

THIS PROVES THAT I WAS RIGHT. AND I FEEL THAT THIS TRIBAL STRATEGY - ALONG WITH THE TWO SURGES, (THE BAGHDAD SURGE AND THE AFGHAN SPRING SURGE), WILL DEFEAT THE ENEMY IN BOTH OF THESE TRIBAL REGIONS.