War in Pakistan

The **War in Pakistan**, originally the **War in North-West Pakistan** or the **War in Waziristan**, was an armed conflict between Pakistan and armed groups like the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The war began in 2004 when tensions in tribal Pakistan escalated into armed resistance, after Pakistan searched for al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters being driven over the border with Afghanistan as a result of the Afghanistan War.

## Background

In the aftermath of Battle of Tora Bora, formal troop deployment was begun by the Pakistan Army, at the behest of the Pakistan Government, in 2002. The conservative parties, most notably the Pakistan Muslim League, were very critical of such troop deployments in the region. The XI Corps, under its commander Lieutenant-General Jan Aurkzai, entered the Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency for the first time since Pakistan's independence in 1947. The army troops later moved into the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan, eventually entering South Waziristan. A monitoring reconnaissance base was established by the Special Service Group [Navy] in 2003. Criticism of Musharraf and the United States grew in Peshawar by a massive communist party in 2003, demanding an end to the operations.

In 2004, the troubles mounted as the Tribes began to see military's deployment and repeated PAF's flights in the region as an act of subjugation. In 2003–04 public speeches, Musharraf repeatedly called for the eviction of the foreign fighters from the South Waziristan and justified the army deployments in the region despite the concerns. In December 2003, at least two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf were traced to South Waziristan. The government responded by intensifying military pressure on the area. However, the fighting was costly: government forces sustained heavy casualties throughout 2004 and into early 2005, when the government switched to a tactic of negotiation instead of direct conflict.

## Fighting Breaks Out

On 16 March 2004, a bloody mountainous battle between the Pakistan Army troops and the foreign fighters of al-Qaeda was fought in the White Mountains of South Waziristan. The Pakistani media speculated that Pakistan Army had surrounded a "high value target" in the mountainous region, possibly al-Qaeda's then-second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri. After a week of the battle, the entire area was captured and as many as 400 al-Qaeda operatives were apprehended by the Pakistan Army. In spite of its success, the army failed to capture Zawahiri. The ISPR later admitted that it was Soviet Uzbek Tohir Yo‘ldosh who was surrounded, not Zawahiri.

The Military Intelligence, Covert Action Division (CAD) and army troops founds many caves and tunnels in White Mountain range used by the foreign fighters before the military action took place. The Military Intelligence accounts maintained that the tunnels were led into Afghanistan, possibly the Tora Bora region. Though it is difficult to know how effective the cordon was on the first night of the military suspension but the military intelligence accounts did confirm that many high-value foreign fighters might have escaped through these tunnels and caves back to Afghanistan. On 7 October 2004, Musharraf approved the appointment of his close aide, General Ehsan-ul-Haq from ISI, who superseded seven colleagues; his appointment was brutally criticized by the media. After becoming the chairman joint chiefs, General Ehsan-ul-Haq oversaw the ground troops deployment of army only, while the air force and navy were kept out of the region.

In April 2004, the Government of Pakistan signed the first of three peace agreements with militants in South Waziristan. It was signed by militia commander Nek Muhammad Wazir, but was immediately abrogated once Nek Muhammad was killed by an American Hellfire missile in June 2004. The second was signed in February 2005 with Nek's successor Baitullah Mehsud, which brought relative calm in the South Waziristan region. This deal would later, in September 2006, be mimicked in the neighboring North Waziristan territory as the third and final truce between the government and the militants. However, all of these truces would not have a substantial effect in reducing bloodshed.

## Transition in Tribal Areas

The ISI's Covert Action Division (CAD) and the Special Services Group conducted a secret paramilitary operation to capture a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi on 4 May 2005, after a raid outside the town of Mardan, 48 km northeast of Peshawar. Al-Libbi replaced Khalid Shaikh Mohammed after his arrest in March 2003 in connection with the 11 September attacks. The Pakistan government arrested al-Libbi and held him on charges in relation to being a chief planner in two assassination attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003.

On 21 June 2006, pro-Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants in the Bannu region of North Waziristan stated they shot down a Bell military helicopter that was reported to have crashed. The government denied missile fire as the cause, stating it was due to technical faults. The helicopter had taken off from a base camp in Bannu at around 7 am for Miramshah and crashed 15 minutes later into the Baran Dam in the Mohmandkhel area on Wednesday morning. Four soldiers were killed while three others were rescued. On the same day militants killed an inspector and two constables on a road connecting Bannu and the main town of Miranshah.

In 2006, the government witnessed the successful implementation of the peace deal between two tribes in Kurram Agency over the issue of distribution of irrigation water. Promptly, the government accepted the tribal recommendation to sign a peace deal with the militants in North Waziristan. Signed on 5 September 2006, the agreement was called the "Waziristan Accord"— an agreement among tribal leaders, militants, and the Pakistan government was signed in Miranshah, North Waziristan to end all fighting.

The media reported a deadly missile airstrike conducted against a madrassa in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan by a "fixed-wing drone" aircraft, based on the testimonies of the locals on 30 October 2006. Immediately, the ISPR claimed that the operation was only by the Pakistan Army, not by the U.S. Army. The monastery was destroyed killing up to 82 people; the ISPR quickly claimed that all were the militants and denied that there had been any collateral damage. The defense expert and others, however, remain skeptical of ISPR statements and gave credibility to local's testimonies. In retaliation for the attack the militants unsuccessfully fired series of RPG rockets on heavily fortified security camp of Governor and Lieutenant-General Jan Aurkzai; though his convey escaped unharmed on 8 November 2006.

## Northern Insurgency

As early as 2007, the Northern region had been suffering with an intense insurgency and President Musharraf was increasingly in great pressure from the militants when several of army operations outlined mixed results. In March, his government was forced to signed a peace treaty with Fakir Mohamad, the main militant leader in Bajaur. In 2007, the fighting sparked between the Uzbek fighters and the native militant groups by the killing of Arab fighter, Saiful Adil, an al-Qaeda operative, blamed on the Uzbeks fighters by Maulvi Nazir, described as a top pro-Taliban militant commander in the region. According to the other version, the fighting started after Maulvi Nazir, whom the government claimed had come over to its side, ordered the Uzbek followers of former Soviet fighters, Tohir Abduhalilovich Yo'ldoshev and Kamolitdinich Jalolov, to disarm, both were formerly the close confidants of Osama bin Laden.

The siege of Red Mosque was one the serious breach in the conflict and escalated the conflict in the summer of 2007. On 3 July 2007, the militant supporters of Lal Masjid and the Pakistan police clashed in Islamabad after the students from the mosque attacked and stoned the nearby MoE secretariat. Their resultant faceoff with the military escalated, despite the intervention of then-ruling PML(Q) leaders Shuja'at Hussain and Ijaz-ul-Haq. The Pakistan police, aided by the Pakistan Army Rangers immediately put up a siege around the mosque complex which lasted until 11 July and resulted in 108 deaths. This represented the main catalyst for the conflict and eventual breakdown of the truce that existed between Pakistan and the Taliban groups. Already during the siege, there were several attacks in Waziristan in retaliation for the siege. As the siege in Islamabad ensued, several attacks on Pakistan army troops in Waziristan were reported. First attack was reported on 14 July 2007 when a suicide bomber attacked a Pakistan Army convoy killing 25 soldiers and wounding 54.

After the army returned to Waziristan, they garrisoned the areas and set up check-points, but the militants hit hard. In mid-September, the TTP and other forces attacked a number of Pakistan army outposts all across North and South Waziristan. This resulted in some of the heaviest fighting of the war. Following the Lal Masjid Siege, the first outpost was attacked and overrun by the militants resulting in the capture of 12 Pakistani soldiers. The next day on 13 September 2007, a suicide bomber in Tarbela Ghazi attacked a Pakistan army base, destroying the main mess hall and killing 20 members of the SSG Karrar Commando Unit; Pakistan's most elite army unit.

On 3 September 2007, the two coordinated suicide bombers targeted a ISI bus and a line of cars carrying ISI officers. The bus attack killed a large number of Defence Ministry workers and the other attack killed an Army colonel. In all 31 people, 19 soldiers and 12 civilians, were killed. Two months later on 24 November, another military intelligence (MI) bus was again attacked. Almost everyone on the bus was killed. Another bomber blew up at a military checkpoint. 35 people were killed, almost all military officials. President Musharraf became involved in a confrontation with the country's judiciary who began taking suo motu actions against the directives issued by Musharraf and his Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on issues involving the forming of the investigative commission on Red Mosque as well as hearings of victims of the siege, the findings of missing persons, issuing verdicts against the controversial NRO and privatization, and issuing subpoena regarding the extrajudicial killing of Akbar Bugti, in 2006. Failing to reach a compromise and subdue the judiciary, Musharraf authorized the decree of sacking around ~70 senior justices including, the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, immediately and declared the state of emergency on 9 November 2007.

## Escalation

In January 2008, the foreign fighters overran Sararogha Fort, and may have overrun a fort in Ladah as well. Both forts are in South Waziristan, and were held by the Pakistan Army. After the general elections in 2008, the army's fighting capability was depleted under the command of President Musharraf and many in the media had scrutinized the role of the army in the national politics. In a secretive appointment by Musharraf personally, General Baig had been an operational commander of the army fighting in the region and was the highest-level military official to be assassinated since 1971 war. In 2008, General Musharraf was soon relieved off his command, succeeding General Ishfaq Pervez Kiani as chief of army staff. Events led by successful movement pushed Musharraf to downfall, followed by the consolidated impeachment movement led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani ousted Musharraf from the presidency in 2008.

After a brief intense change in chain of command in the Pakistan Armed Forces, a full-fledged military operation called 'Zalzala' was undertaken by 14th Army Division in January with the goal of flushing out Baitullah Mehsud's TTP fighters from the area. The area had previously been a more or less safe zone for militants, with some villagers providing them support and shelter. The operation resulted in tactical success and scores of militants were killed during the operation, and within three days the armed forces were in full control of the area. The army later captured a few other villages and small towns as part of their attempt to pressure Baitullah Mehsud. Earlier on 7 February 2008, the TTP had offered a truce to Musharraf and peace negotiations resulting in a suspension of violence. On 21 May 2008, the Government signed a peace agreement with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

On 21 July 2008, heavy fighting with the another separatist group, the BLA in Baluchistan Province, killed 32 militants, 9 soldiers and 2 civilians. More than two dozen militants were captured and a large weapons cache was found. Between 28 July and 4 August 2008, heavy fighting flared up in the northwestern Swat valley leaving 94 militants, 28 civilians and 22 soldiers and policemen, were dead. On 6 August 2008, the heavy ground fighting erupted in the Loisam area of the Bajaur district. The Loisam lies on the strategically important road leading towards the main northwestern city of Peshawar. The fighting started when hundreds of foreign fighters poured into the area and began attacking armed forces. After four days of fighting on 10 August 2008, the military was forced to withdraw from the area. It resulted in confirmed killing of 100 militants and 9 soldiers, and another 55 soldiers were missing, at least three dozen of them captured by the militants.

In 2008, the al-Qaeda struck its largest terrorist attack in Islamabad when a truck bomb targeted the Marriott Hotel. This attack was a defining moment in the war and around ~266 sustained the injuries and 54 died. According the testimonies, numbers of U.S. Marines and U.S. Navy personnel also died in the attack; many believed the Americans were the target of the terrorist attacks. and Prime Minister Gillani publicly vowed revenge in response to the Marriott Hotel bombing. By 26 September 2008, Pakistan air force and army had successfully conducted and completed a major joint offensive in the Bajaur and the Tang Khata regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, codenamed Operation Sherdil. Thist joint operation had killed over 1,000 militants in a huge offensive, a day after President Asif Ali Zardari lashed out at US forces over a clash on the Afghan border.

At the end of August 2008, the USAF stepped up its air attacks in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. On 3 September 2008, the United States Army Special Forces teams laid a commando attack in a village near the Afghan border in South Waziristan. Additional air strikes from unmanned drones in North Waziristan culminating on 8 September 2008, when a United States Air Force drone aircraft fired a number of missiles at a "guest house for militants arriving in North Waziristan." Around ~23 people were killed, but the operation's target, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was not among them.

On 25 September 2008, the Pakistan military and the US military became involved in heavy border fighting on the Frontier border. The incident happened after two US military helicopters came under fire from Pakistan army troops. A US military spokesman insisted that they had been about a mile and a half inside Afghanistan. Speaking at the United Nations, President Asif Zardari maintained that Pakistan would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty, even by its allies. President Zardari told the United Nations, "Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said, without specifically citing the United States or the border flareup.

### Attacks on NATO Supply Lines

On 19 October 2008, the news media began to broadcast the news of Pakistan Army troops, led by an army lieutenant, being locked in a fierce battle with foreign militants to keep open the line routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan. For several months, the foreign militants had been trying to either attack or seal off the supply routes. The army battle reports indicated that the local commander, Mohammad Tariq al-Fridi, had seized terrain around the mile-long Kohat Tunnel. The military intelligence reports had held al-Fridi responsible for coordinated suicide bomb attacks and rocket strikes against convoys emerging from it. The TTP spokesman, Maulvi Omar, claimed that his foreign fighters would lay down their arms if the Pakistan Army ceased intense fighting. The military refused his offers and a tactical military operation was launched to secure the tunnel routes after TTP seized five trucks carrying weapons and ammunition. They held the tunnel for a week before they were driven out in fierce fighting with the military.

Since then, Tariq and his men have returned several times to attack convoys, in a response, the army launched its latest onslaught after a suicide bomb attack at one of its bases near the tunnel six weeks ago. In a massive manhunt operation, Tariq was killed along with hundreds of militants while trying to flee the battle in a combat air operation. The operation ended with five civilians were killed and 45 were injured, including 35 soldiers, when a pickup truck packed with explosives was driven into a checkpoint

## Public Support and Increased Insurgency

On 1 March 2009, the Pakistan Army troops finally defeated the foreign fighters in Bajaur, which is a strategically important region on the Afghanistan border. The 40th Army Division commander, Major-General Tariq Khan reported that the army and the Frontier Corps had killed most militants in Bajaur, the smallest of the agencies but a major infiltration route into Afghanistan, after a six-month offensive. By the time the battle in Bajaur was over, the Pakistan Army killed over 1,500 militants while losing 97 of their own soldiers and 404 soldiers seriously injured.

In March 2009, many Pakistanis were horrified when a videotape was broadcast in news channels that showed militant enforcers were publicly whipping a 17-year-old girl in Swat accused of having an affair. The girl had not committed fornication or adultery but was flogged simply because she refused her brother's demand to marry someone of his choosing. On 26 April 2009, the unified Pakistan Armed Forces started the strategic and tactical airborne attack, codename Black Thunderstorm, with the aim of retaking Buner, Lower Dir, Swat and Shangla districts from the TTP. This joint army-navy- air force unified operation was well rehearsed and prepared.

By 14 May 2009, the military was only six kilometers south of Mingora, the milita-held capital city of Swat, and preparations for all-out street fighting were underway. On 23 May 2009, the battle for Mingora started and by 27 May, approximately 70% of the city was cleared of militants. On 30 May, the Pakistan military had taken back the city of Mingora from the TTP, calling it a significant victory in its offensive against the militants. However, some sporadic fighting was still continuing on the city's outskirts.

On 17 October 2009, the military launched another offense, called Rah-e-Nijat when the combat brigades and fighter jets launched a large-scale offensive in South Waziristan involving ~28,000 troops advancing across South Waziristan from three directions. Starting with air force strike and naval intelligence assessment on the TTP, the first town to fall to the military was Kotkai, the birthplace of the TTP leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, on 19 October 2009. On 1 November 2009, the towns of Sararogha and Makin were surrounded, and fighting for Sararogha started on 3 November. The fighting there lasted until 17 November, when the town finally fell to the military. The same day, the town of Laddah was also captured by the military and street fighting commenced in Makin. Both Sararogha and Laddah were devastated in the fighting.

In early October 2009, the TTP started a string of bomb attacks in cities across Pakistan. The goal of the attacks was to show that the TTP militants were still a united fighting force following the death of their leader and to disrupt a planned military offensive into South Waziristan. Places targeted include the U.N. World Food Program offices in Islamabad a food store in Peshawar; military headquarters in Rawalpindi; a market in Shangla; the intelligence establishments in Lahore; the police stations in Kohat and Peshawar; the Islamic center at the International Islamic University in Islamabad; and Air Science Laboratories (ASL) Complex in Kamra.

In January 2013, at least 80 militants and civilians were killed in clashes between the Tehrik-e-Taliban / Lashkar-e-Islam and Ansar ul-Islam (a pro-government militant group) in Tirah Valley of Pakistan's Khyber Agency. Operation Rah-e-Shahadat, was a codename of a joint military operation that was commenced on 5 April 2013 by the Pakistan Army, with assistance provided by the PAF and Navy for air support. In close coordination with Local Peace Committee (Aman Lashkar), the army troops and special operations forces, aided by Frontier Corps, to flush out TTP and LeI militants from the Tirah Valley of the Khyber Agency. At least four Pakistani soldiers and 14 insurgents were killed while 5 soldiers were also wounded.

On 19 December 2013, the army launched a major offensive in the Mir Ali region of North Waziristan following a suicide bomb attack on a checkpoint in the area the previous day. Artillery and helicopter gunships were used in the operation. By 23 December, more than 30 militants and up to 70 civilians allegedly were killed. In response to an attack on Jinnah International Airport on 8 June 2014, the Pakistani military launched an operation on 15 June 2014 against the North Waziristan militants including the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network. Up to 30,000 soldiers are involved in the operation. It has been described as a "comprehensive operation" that aims to flush out foreign and local militants hiding in North Waziristan. More than 600 Islamic militants have been killed in the operation.

## Further Escalation & Eurasian Intervention

The insurgency and fighting slowed throughout 2015 as most of the world watched the War against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In May 2016, the Taliban staged a series of bombings across Baluchistan in both Iran and Pakistan. In June 2016, as the war in Syria turned in the coalition's favour, remnants of Islamic State fighters began to bolster Taliban and al-Qaeda ranks in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In late June, the Taliban and IS launched a counter-offensive against the Pakistani army, gaining control of vast swaths of tribal Pakistan. In July, the Pakistani government lost control of the tribal regions entirely. By the end of September 2016, the Pakistani army held a defensive line from Peshawar to Multan. The Taliban and IS began to put pressure on Pakistani army along their defensive line, while Baluchi separatist groups put pressure on the government around Quetta.

On 2 October 2016, the Russia, Iran and Afghanistan announced they would assist the Pakistani government in a counter-offensive against the Taliban-IS forces. In retaliation to this announcement, the Taliban set off a series of car bombs in Quetta killing ~166 people, including 17 Pakistani soldiers on 9 October. The following day, the Pakistani army deployed reinforcements to Quetta, declaring martial law in the city. In December, Taliban-IS agitators infiltrated protests in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Hyderabad, causing some protests to get violent. Prime Minister Nawas Sharif recalled troops from the front lines to quell the unrest. In January 2017, a military convoy carrying two nuclear-tipped cruise missiles was attacked by IS, and the government lost control of the weapons.

In April 2017, a Central Intelligence Agency report claimed that high-level contacts between the Pakistan Army, ISI and the Taliban were made in which the government allowed the Taliban to overrun the western and tribal regions in exchange for leaving the bigger cities un-harassed. On 27 April, the United States, with consent from Islamabad, launched a series of precision drone strikes, killing several hundred Taliban fighters. However, public outrage over the strikes caused the government to backflip on allowing the U.S. to launch covert drone operations.

Throughout May, riots broke out in Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi as a result of Pakistani-sanctioned U.S. drone strikes. Riot police were called in to quell the violence, but many police defect and the riots last for several weeks. On 28 May, the Pakistan government finally banned American drones from entering Pakistani airspace. As the war in Afghanistan turned to the Eurasian favour, many Taliban-IS forces began spilling voer the border into Pakistan. On 17 July, Russia and China vetoed a UNSC resolution which would have called for an international intervention in Pakistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that "Eurasian forces were succeed in Afghanistan and Pakistan where NATO failed".

On 25 July, the Indus River flooded, inundating nearly 1/5 of Pakistan with flooding, only furthering Taliban-IS gains across the country. The American and Pakistani Armies airlift supplies to stricken areas. After months of rising tensions, America and Pakistan broke off formal relations after Secretary of State Jon Huntsman accused Pakistan of acting with "duplicity in respect to the Taliban".

## Operation Icarus

On 9 September 2017, the United States conducted one of the largest airborne operations in history. Much of the US Air Force and air transport arm airlifts and para-droped over 12,000 marines, special forces and army troops into Pakistan to seize 16 suspected nuclear sites and storage facilities. CIA operatives on the ground helped these forces seize the sites and neutralize security and elements of the Pakistani Army opposing them. Three carrier battle groups in the Indian Ocean launched air and missiles strikes that neutralized Pakistani air defenses and destroyed most of the Air Force on the ground helping ground forces achieve their objectives. Electromagnetic rail guns mounted on US naval cruisers bombarded Pakistani Army and air defense assets in and around Karachi and other parts of Sind Province as far as 80 miles inland from the coast. US rail guns also struck suspected militant training centers for IS, the Taliban and Baluchi separatists in Pakistani Baluchistan. The rail guns also pummeled port facilities and other infrastructure in Gwadar, in Pakistani Baluchistan. Naval lasers and Patriot missile systems on US Navy Aegis Destroyers prevented a limited Pakistani missile counter attack from damaging the US 6th Fleet. Lasers destroyed any incoming projectiles the Patriot missiles miss. Naval lasers also annihilated Pakistani Navy patrol boats at close range, proving to be devastating weapons in ship to ship warfare.

1000s of Pakistani soldiers died on day 1 of Operation Icarus. Other Pakistani forces were torn between manning their posts on the front lines with India and the Taliban and facing the enemy that dropped out of the sky into the middle of their country. USA soldiers battle the Taliban to secure five nuclear sites in the north that had already fallen to the IS/Taliban offensive. By the end of Day 2 of Icarus, the nuclear sites were secured. The US forces suffered several hundred casualties fighting the Taliban, IS and Pakistani regulars and have orders to hold their ground and engage Pakistani forces and the Taliban only if attacked. Throughout September, the USAF pummeled Taliban front lines across Pakistan, killing hundreds of Taliban forces as well as thousands of civilians. On 21 September, all American forces had fully withdrawn from Pakistan.