The following map pinpoints the large helipad used to supply Darunta--
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http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Darunta+afghanistan&sll=34.116797,70.217421&sspn=0.004299,0.009334&ie=UTF8&ll=34.501464,70.375328&spn=0.01712,0.037336&t=k&z=14&iwloc=A&om=0&cid=34490491,70371081,16555216169703908126&source=embed " style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map
The ongoing offensive in the Swat zone of instability began when Pakistan agreed to US demands to assault the "Red Mosque" Islamic compound in Islamabad. The storming of the compound ignited an uprising in the Northwest Provinces by followers of Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz. The Islamists had become more and more successful at their attempts to spark the building democratic-revolution, emboldening Pakistani lawyers to mount large protests, threatening to sweep Musharref and his US allies away. Musharref has escalated the confrontation with the Islamists by supporting the ISI attempt to blame one of them, Baitullah Mehsud, for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
One-hundred seventy-five miles south of the Swat Valley war zone, around the town of Wana, Mehsud has stood with al Qaida and the foreign Taliban against local Islamists, headed by Maulvi Nazir, who has been waging war to evict al Qaida foreigners (mostly Uzbeks) and Afghan Taliban from his territory. The al Qaida flocked to the area in 2001 after being driven from the Kandahar area in Afghanistan, which adjoins northwest Baluchistan. Nazir has followed the same pattern that we have seen the people adopt in Iraq, where Sunnis turn against al Qaida because of their brutal attacks to force harsh Sharia law upon them. After Nazir could stand no more, he gathered together 900 of his friends from the "local Taliban," to drive the mostly Uzbeki al Qaida from South Waziristan. The government provided aid to Nazir's fight, but when government forces tried to actively fight alongside the defending Waziri, it felt the combined retaliation of both sides.
Recently, nine of Nazir's representatives to upcoming peace talks with the government were killed in rocket attacks, blamed on Uzbekis who were connected to Mehsud. The attack was probably another part of the ISI disinformation campaign to turn local Islamists against Mehsud's Taliban, designed to trigger more of the anti-Uzbeki attacks. After the attack, Nazir issued a deadline for all of the Mehsud to leave the area. The Waziri are expected to attempt to drive the Mehsud tribesmen northward of Wana, into the Kurram Agency, which has a large Shiite population. This area will have to become the focus of CIA/ISI secret plans to foment religious war against the Shia, supporters of Iran, by driving the Sunnis and Shiites together. Kurram adjoins the area of Tora Bora, on the edge of the large circular zone of instability. Baitullah Mehsud has also been linked to attacks upon Shiites in the Kohat area. Other reports from the area claim that Mehsud is marked for assassination by a government death squad. http://www.topnews.in/pak-agencies-devise-strategy-kill-baitullah-mehsud-210441
Wana sits squarely on the trail used by Islamic fighters traveling from the Swat region to the heated battlefield in Southeastern Afghanistan, on the northern edge of the Baluch region. This is the border area between the multinational Pashtun and Baluch tribes. The Taliban are primarily a Pashtun movement. It appears that the goal of the US is to use these inter-tribal hostilities to erase the borders of the two countries. In 2005, al-Qaeda and the Taliban took over this area, "transforming Baluchistan from a logistics center to an operational base." http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369909 The sparsely populated Baluch area is also home to Pakistan's huge reserves of natural gas, the chosen route for the India-Iran gas lines, and several nuclear research and delivery sites. http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/facility/pakistan-fac3.gif Recent attacks by Jundallah terrorists into Iran came from this region.
The recent attempt to blame Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a textbook example of the Pakistani ISI duplicity in the region. Even while government spokesmen finger Mehsud for the hit, other ISI operatives and journalists (Pakistani neocons) are spreading rumors, alleging his involvement with the anti-America/Musharref resistance.
"To neutralise that strategic blunder, the ISI operatives are trying to present Pakistan and Pakistan army as a target of the US aggression. Of course they are the primary targets of the US. But Musharraf definitely is not. To indirectly generate sympathies for Musharraf, the ISI analysis try to explain how Pakistan military is being strategically sabotaged, forgetting the fact that this has nothing to do with the US plans against Musharraf because Musharraf is the key facilitators of all anti-Pakistan plans by the neocons and warlords in Washington. The ISI attempt to parade Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Baitullah Mehsud, and the Maulana of Swat as ISI agents just doesn't hold water...If Al-Qaeda is in fact fighting for the US against Pakistan, what is all this fuss about the 'war on terrorism' on the part of Mush and his cronies in Islamabad?" http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/48555
The author of that commentary may have been more of a prophet than he realized, when he asked if al Qaida was fighting for the United States. Hasn't it been said, that the best place to hide something is to put it in plain sight? Rumors created by ISI liars may be more factual than that which they proffer as truth. By starting a whispering campaign to tell the truth about their intentions they know that it won't be believed, because of its source. Known liars like Bush and Musharref, speaking honestly about their intentions, cover the truth with their dishonest reputations.
In the northern quadrant of this zone is the critical Swat Valley region, the focal point of the ongoing military offensive. In this jihadi stronghold, we find al Qaida Uzbeks again fomenting rebellion. "Radio Mullah," otherwise known as Maulana Fazlullah of Swat, works diligently to broadcast his fundamentalist Wahabbi/Taliban values, backed up by 500 well-armed followers, including Uzbek fighters. He is the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, founder of the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM - Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws). Here hardcore Taliban, al Qaida, TNSM and other organizations await the promised arrival of the American Special Forces, planning to repel them just as they have successfully done with the Pakistani Army. Also within this same circle lies a large percentage of Pakistan's nuclear development and delivery systems.
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