Pakistan militants scrap deal

Posted 07 4 2009 2:43AM

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A pro-Taliban militant group said it had scrapped a peace deal in a Pakistani tribal region, provoking fears Tuesday that fighting between government troops and insurgents will expand.

Clashes between the military and rebels have surged recently in the semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border after the government vowed to push into the rugged terrain to crush Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

"We are revoking our peace deal with the government," said Ahmedullah Ahmedi, spokesman for the group in North Waziristan, where the military on Sunday suffered its deadliest ambush in recent months.

"We will continue attacking military targets in the area until troops are completely withdrawn and drone attacks halted," said Ahmedi in one of several telephone calls made to journalists.

At least 44 suspected US drone attacks targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan's tribal belt have killed more than 440 people since August 2008 in raids that Pakistan publicly opposes as counter-productive.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP that the army was not involved in any peace agreement with the pro-Taliban group and said it was up to the government to deal with the breakdown of the pact.

No government officials were available to comment, but Islamabad has expressed determination to strike militants with a iron fist since unleashing an offensive under US pressure in other parts of the northwest in April.

Peace deals between the government and pro-Taliban militant groups generally unravel quickly in Pakistan, including a deal in northwest Swat district that militants flouted in April, leading to the offensive in the verdant valley.

The agreement with the North Waziristan group headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur was signed in 2007 but not made public and the militants did not disarm.

Bahadur aligned with Mehsud -- who has a five-million-dollar US price on his head and a Pakistani bounty of 615,000 dollars -- this year under an umbrella council but declared his intention to retain a separate identity.

Analysts fear that Pakistan's already entrenched conflict with Islamist militants could now expand to North Waziristan, which lies on the border with Afghanistan and neighbours Mehsud's stronghold of South Waziristan.

"All previous agreements have become irrelevant and the theatre of war will now expand," defence and political analyst Hasan Askari told AFP.

"Since Al-Qaeda is present in Waziristan, they are going to come in to fight Pakistan," Askari added.

Pakistan's military advanced into the districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat about two months ago to clear militants, and are now conducting air strikes over South Waziristan ahead of an expected ground offensive.

Abbas said there was no military action in the tribal zone Tuesday, but said security forces were engaged in ongoing efforts including air raids to "choke the area" ahead of a full-scale campaign.

"This is all part of shaping the environment, the preparatory stages of the operation," he told AFP. "The area, particularly Baitullah Mehsud's area, has been under siege from all sides."

In a daily statement, the military made no mention of Waziristan or the breakdown of the tenuous agreement, instead reporting that 18 militants were killed in Swat and Dir over the last 24 hours.

It said three soldiers were killed and eight wounded in fighting in Swat, capping a deadly few days for the army.

Rebels armed with rocket launchers and machine guns attacked a military convoy in North Waziristan on Sunday, killing 16 soldiers in the worst such attack in months in an area where commanders never expected to face violence.

Abbas on Monday termed the attack "unprovoked and uncalled for" and vowed to respond in an "appropriate manner."