Mosque of the Red Death: Middle East in Flames Part III

[Zeno]

Troops Storm Red Mosque in Islamabad




According to the article:

"Government troops stormed the compound of Islamabad's Red Mosque before dawn Tuesday, prompting a fierce firefight with militants accused of holding about 150 hostages inside, officials said. At least 40 rebels and three soldiers were killed.

Amid the sounds of rolling explosions, commandos attacked from three directions about 4 a.m. and quickly cleared the ground floor of the mosque, army spokesman Gen. Waheed Arshad said. Some 20 children who rushed toward the advancing troops were brought to safety, he said....."

And:

"Clashes this month between security forces and supporters of the mosque's hardline clerics prompted the siege. The religious extremists had been trying to impose Taliban-style morality in the capital through a six-month campaign of kidnappings and threats. At least 67 people have been killed since July 3...."

And also this:

"The siege has given the neighborhood the look of a war zone, with troops manning machine guns behind sandbagged posts and from the top of armored vehicles.

It has also sparked anger in Pakistan's restive northwest frontier. On Monday, 20,000 tribesmen, including hundreds of masked militants wielding assault rifles, held a protest in the frontier region of Bajur.

Many chanted "Death to Musharraf" and "Death to America" in a rally led by Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a cleric wanted by authorities and who is suspected of ties to al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri."

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This is still an early report and the fighting around and in the Mosque may still be ongoing. The goverment won, sort of. How long Pakistan will remain one country even if just on paper is an open question.

Allah be Praised!

-Zeno

[Zeno]

Mosque mostly taken


The short and long of it:

"Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said only a "very few" militants were still resisting and that combat operations would soon end. But he said clearing the compound of mines, booby traps and other weaponry could take some time.

"The whole area has to be sanitized," he told a press conference.

Arshad said three of the remaining die-hard defenders had been killed overnight, and that troops were meeting resistance in just "one or two places" of the sprawling compound in the heart of the Pakistani capital.

More than 50 militants and 10 soldiers have been killed since the assault began in the early hours of Tuesday, including the mosque's pro-Taliban cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the army said.

Commandos went in after unsuccessful attempts to get the mosque's militants to surrender to a weeklong siege mounted by the government following deadly street clashes with armed supporters of the mosque on July 3."

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One down, about 5,000 more to go.

-Zeno

[JMa]

i still dont understand why the police had to storm the place? why couldnt they just let the mosque be?

[bobman0330]

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i still dont understand why the police had to storm the place? why couldnt they just let the mosque be?

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The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the compound.

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[John Kilduff]

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i still dont understand why the police had to storm the place? why couldnt they just let the mosque be?

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Why couldn't the denizens of the mosque "just let other people be"? They were kidnapping citizens, harboring militants, and trying to force their version of Islamic morality on everyone else.

Radical Islamists are nothing like peaceful Buddhists, even when the former resides in a Mosque and the latter resides in a Temple.

[Zeno]

Militants kill 38 in Northwest Pakistan: News Article

According to the article:

"Suicide attackers struck a police headquarters and a military convoy on Sunday in Pakistan's northwest, killing as many as 38 people in an intensifying anti-government campaign in an area long known as a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Militants in the Afghan border region disavowed a 10-month old truce with the government that critics said gave them a safe haven from which to launch attacks on Afghan, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to revenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week, and the region's Islamic militants are increasingly training their attacks on the soldiers _ and apparently other government targets as well. "

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Remember the Red Mosque! A continued intensification of fighting will almost certainly occur. This area of Pakistan is almost a separate entity and the government of Musharraf has little control. Pervez Musharraf has vowed to "crush extremists" :

Pakistan's President Vows to Crush Extremists

Will this result in a civil war in Pakistan?

-Zeno

[Exsubmariner]

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This is still an early report and the fighting around and in the Mosque may still be ongoing. The goverment won, sort of. How long Pakistan will remain one country even if just on paper is an open question.



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With the US firmly enschonced next door in Afghanistan, I say this is a moot point. We'll be happy at any time to help our good friends put down this petty rebellion.

[John Kilduff]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is still an early report and the fighting around and in the Mosque may still be ongoing. The goverment won, sort of. How long Pakistan will remain one country even if just on paper is an open question.



[/ QUOTE ]

With the US firmly enschonced next door in Afghanistan, I say this is a moot point. We'll be happy at any time to help our good friends put down this petty rebellion.

[/ QUOTE ]

One mosque might be a petty rebellion, but it won't be petty if most of Waziristan province along with the al-Qaeda sympathizers in Pakistan's intelligence services come to feel the time is right to overthrow Musharraf's government. Yes, the USA would be happy to help put down such development due to fear of Pakistan's nukes falling into bad hands, but that doesn't mean the quelling would be successful in the long-term. The long-term resiliency of the terrorists and jihadists (and of their sympathizers) is becoming apparent in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This in many respects is a broader war of resiliency and attrition, and the assymetrical aspects of it greatly leverage the positions of the jihadists and their sympathizers.