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Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has ordered his fighters to
target Pakistan amid growing signs that its army and US drones are
closing in on al-Qaeda.
By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor
Karachi, August 29, 2009 – Military analysts and retired senior army
chiefs said his call reflected growing disarray in the militant ranks
following the death of Pakistan's feared Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud
earlier this month and the brutal leadership battle it has provoked.
Mehsud is one of several "high-value" Taliban and al-Qaeda figures
killed by Predator drones in the tribal areas close to its border with
Afghanistan, while their allies in Swat Valley, where the charismatic
Maulana Fazlullah, known as "Maulana Radio" for his popular
fundamentalist radio broadcasts, have been driven out by a Pakistan army
offensive.
The Taliban was finally forced to confirm Mehsud's death earlier this
week after insisting he was merely ill. Analysts said they had wanted to
confirm his successor before admitting their most effective leader to
date had been killed.
Since his death a number of Pakistani Taliban commanders have
surrendered or announced ceasefire amid shifting alliances in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
The intervention of al-Qaeda's deputy leader is an attempt to shore up
the new Taliban leadership, prevent further defections, and inspire a
new offensive to stop Pakistani and American forces from getting closer
to their "safe haven" along the border, analysts said.
In a video recording released to a militant website, Zawahiri said the
battle against American and Pakistani armies in the region is the battle
against "crusader" forces. "The war in the tribal areas and Swat is an
inseparable part of the Crusaders' assault on the Muslims the length and
breadth of the Islamic world," he said.
"This is the battle, briefly and plainly; and this is why anyone who
supports the Americans and Pakistan army, under any pretext, ploy or
lie, is in fact standing with, backing and supporting the Crusaders
against Islam and Muslims."
The video message, which was part of a 22 minute and 30 second
documentary entitled Path of Doom was an indication that increased
co-operation between American and Pakistani military forces had put the
militants on the defensive, said Lieutenant-General Talat Masood, a
retired senior Pakistan army chief.
"What it signifies is that they want to give full support to the new
leadership of the Taliban because they know it is in disarray. They have
suffered huge setbacks and now we can see this desperation," he said.
He said the militants were now hitting soft targets to reassert their
authority. On Thursday a suicide bomber struck at a police checkpoint at
the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan, killing 22 guards as they
broke their Ramadan fast at dusk.
The bomber struck hours after an American drone attack killed another
four Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, where Pakistan intelligence
chiefs are trying to sow dissension and engineer splits between rival
commanders.
Lt-Gen Masood said the Pakistan Taliban was now split between supporters
of its wealthiest and most powerful commander Wali ur Rehman, who heads
its strongest force in South Waziristan, and Hakimullah, the younger
commander backed by al-Qaeda as Baitullah Mehsud's successor.
Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik told the BBC earlier this week
that army operations in Swat and Waziristan had "broken the back of the
country's insurgency" and that foreign al-Qaeda fighters were now
leaving to fight in Somalia.
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