Leaders in tribal borderland threaten to send fighters to battle U.S. in Afghanistan if strikes don’t stop
SAEED SHAH
The Globe and Mail
September 15, 2008
ISLAMABAD — The new U.S. strategy of unilateral attack against suspected militants inside Pakistani territory is threatening to send moderate Pakistani tribesmen to go fight alongside extremists against coalition forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The move piles more pressure on the fragile new democratic government in Islamabad, which is struggling to defend Pakistan’s role in the war on terror against a hostile public that sees U.S. aggression as being as much of a danger as the Islamic militants.
Over the weekend, tribal chiefs in North Waziristan, the part of Pakistan’s tribal borderland that was struck by the most recent civilian-killing U.S. missile attack, vowed to take the fight to Afghanistan if the United States does not halt attacks into Pakistan. These community leaders, representing the majority of people in North Waziristan, had not previously supported the extremists, but they are fiercely independent, armed and willing to fight anyone who trespasses on their land. Their anger could easily spread to other six other “agencies” that make up the tribal belt, several of which have also been subject to U.S. attacks.
There has been an intensified bombardment of the tribal territory with U.S. missile strikes against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps and hideouts, compounded by the first U.S. ground raid into the area earlier this month, apparently in exasperation at Pakistan’s inaction.
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Reacting to the missile attack Friday in North Waziristan, tribal chiefs from the area, representing around half a million people, called an emergency jirga – or tribal meeting – on Saturday.
“If America doesn’t stop attacks in tribal areas, we will prepare a lashkar [tribal army] to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan,” tribal chief Malik Nasrullah announced. “We will also seek support from the tribal elders in Afghanistan to fight jointly against America.”
During the past month, there have been seven U.S. missile strikes in the tribal area, about the same number as the whole of last year, representing a huge escalation in American intervention in Pakistan. The ground assault, which took place in South Waziristan, provoked a sharp rebuke from the Pakistan army, which is otherwise an ally in the “war on terror.” Washington believes that Taliban and al-Qaeda militants fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan use Pakistan’s tribal area as a safe haven.
“If the Americans are coming to sort it out with force, they would create more enemies,” said Ayaz Wazir, a retired Pakistani diplomat who is a tribal chief from South Waziristan. “The Americans might have supersonic jets and we might have to fight with stones in our hands, but we will stand up.”
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