PESHAWAR, Pakistan - - Pakistan announced Sunday that it planned to expand its offensive against Taliban militants into the troubled South Waziristan region. The announcement came just hours after a bomb in a crowded market in the area killed eight people and wounded 38.
The deadly bombing was the latest in a series of attacks believed to be in retaliation for the Pakistani army's ongoing offensive against strongholds of the Islamic militant group.
Owais Ghani, North-West Frontier Province governor, announced Sunday that the army would extend its fight against militants to the portion of Waziristan abutting the border with Afghanistan.
Ghani's confirmation of the move, which follows weeks of rumors to that effect, didn't say when it would start. The area is the stronghold of the country's most powerful Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud.
"The military and law-enforcing agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-scale operation to eliminate these beasts and killers," Ghani said at a news conference Sunday.
Separately, a reported attack Sunday by a drone aircraft in the South Waziristan tribal area was said to have killed as many as five people. A missile fired from the drone hit a vehicle in Laddah, about 40 miles north of the region's main town of Wana, sources said.
In mid-May, U.S. officials acknowledged having flown drones in cooperation with the Pakistani government. The reported attack Sunday was the first since May 16. Pakistani analysts, citizens and a growing number of U.S. analysts say the military value of such strikes is usually more than offset by the loss of public goodwill. The highly unpopular program, which has killed many civilians, has been viewed in Pakistan as an affront to the nation's sovereignty.
"They may hit a target, but it has a 10-times-greater negative impact on public opinion," said Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University. "The U.S. and Pakistan need to cooperate and coordinate better on the civilian and the military side."
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a tripling of aid to Pakistan on Thursday to about $1.5 billion a year in a bid to combat militancy through development. The country is now the largest recipient of U.S. aid.
Pakistan is struggling against a growing homegrown Taliban insurgency. The army continues to enjoy relatively strong popular support after more than a month of fighting against militants in the Buner and Dir districts and in the Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
But militant groups in the past have undermined support for government offensives by attacking civilian targets, prompting people to call for an end to the violence, even if it's just a short-term fix.
This appears to be their strategy again. In recent weeks, militants have launched suicide attacks against a provincial intelligence headquarters in Lahore and a luxury hotel in Peshawar that housed many U.N. staffers, among others.
