Pakistan battles in Taliban leader's hometown

By HUSSAIN AFZAL and ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

PARACHINAR, Pakistan – Pakistani soldiers fighting inside the hometown of the Pakistani Taliban leader were gaining ground Wednesday as they pressed ahead with a major assault on a militant sanctuary close to the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

Troops had secured parts of Kotkai and destroyed the home of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, but battles were ongoing, two officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The five-day-old offensive in South Waziristan is considered a critical test of the nuclear-armed country's often criticized campaign against Islamist extremists blamed for soaring attacks at home and on Western forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, twin suicide bombings killed six people at Islamabad's International Islamic University in apparent retaliation for the offensive. All educational institutions in the country were closed Wednesday, showing the militants' ability to disrupt daily life.

The military is advancing on three fronts in South Waziristan. The fight for Kotkai is symbolically important because Hakimullah Mehsud and a top deputy, Qari Hussain, hail from there. It also lies on the way to another the militant stronghold of Sararogha.

Army spokesmen were not available for comment on the fighting in the town.

On Tuesday, militant fighters said they had repelled an army assault on it, and a military spokesman denied a media report that soldiers had retaken it.

It is nearly impossible to independently verify information coming from South Waziristan because the army has closed off all roads to the region. Analysts say both sides have exaggerated successes and downplayed loses in the past.

Chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas cautioned that the fight in South Waziristan could be long.

"This is a mountainous terrain and therefore the operations tend to be slow," Abbas told the AP in an interview Tuesday. The militants "are very tough fighters. They know the area, terrain. And they are very determined to fight."

Abbas said the military believed that Hakimullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain remain in the region under fire, directing the militants' defenses. That information is based on local informants and communications intercepts, Abbas said.

The army claims to have killed some 90 militants and to have lost 13 soldiers in the offensive so far.