Islamist leader exhibits shrewdness

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Islamist com- mander accused of masterminding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has shown uncanny tactical savvy in his home base near the Afghan border.

Baitullah Mehsud reportedly emerged from hiding in the South Waziristan tribal area to personally lead a force of several hundred militants in a nighttime attack on a poorly manned fort, killing and capturing several Pakistani troops before blowing up the fort and then slinking into the night.

The fort at Sararogha, about 25 miles east of Wana, the agency’s administrative center, was one of a string of military bases built during the British colonial era.

The newspaper Dawn reported that Mehsud suddenly appeared outside the fort at about 9 p.m. on Jan. 15 and attacked.

The Pakistani border forces, who were under orders “to fight to the last man, the last bullet,” were hopelessly outnumbered, and were overrun in a six-hour battle that ended when Mehsud’s men smashed a hole in the fortress and poured in through the breach.

Both official and militant sources put the number of defenders at between 40 and 45.

Mehsud was said to be leading a force of at least 200 men, said a Pakistani military spokesman, and between 400 and 700 men by unofficial estimates.

Seven Pakistani troops were reported killed. About the same number escaped in the dark and fled to a neighboring fort, which some reports said was more than 20 miles away.

The rest of the government troops were taken prisoner by the militants, and some were beheaded — a standard practice among Uzbek militants. Several Uzbeks were fighting with Mehsud’s men.

Islamabad did not receive the news of the fighting until about a day later, when about 20 soldiers were reported missing. Pakistani officials said 40 to 50 militants were killed in the fighting.

Pakistani forces have been shelling areas controlled by Mehsud for days, presumably in advance of a ground offensive.

During the shelling, however, militants attacked another fort in South Waziristan yesterday in a battle that left at least five troops and 37 insurgents dead, Pakistani officials said.

Both the Pakistani government and the CIA said Mehsud planned and ordered the Dec. 27 assassination of Mrs. Bhutto.

Mehsud has denied involvement, but reportedly said before Mrs. Bhutto’s return from exile that the former prime minister would be greeted with suicide bombs.

A 15-year-old boy arrested and accused of involvement in the Bhutto killing told Pakistani authorities that he spent 40 days training at a camp run by Mehsud in Pakistan and another 40 days training in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, according to the Associated Press.

Mehsud’s surprise attack on the fort marked tactical and moral victory for Mehsud and the latest bruising defeat for Pakistani border forces, who have suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of the militants over the past three years.

By the end of last year, Pakistan lost more than 1,000 men battling militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, affecting army morale. Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been taken captive, sometimes surrendering to militants firing a shot.

Federal Interior Minister and retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Nawaz told reporters after the attack on the fort that Mehsud would be “arrested soon.”

Mehsud reportedly leads a force of up to 20,000 militants of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or Taliban Movement (of Pakistan), set up last year to unite Islamic militant forces in FATA and Pakistan’s volatile North West Frontier Province.

He has waged a string of limited attacks against government troops elsewhere in FATA.

Government forces, however, have built a new airfield with U.S. assistance just outside Wana, which is adjacent the Mehsud tribal territory to the south.

The runway, now operational, is reportedly large enough to take C-130 aircraft carrying troops and supplies to the war zone.

It should reduce the risks of having to transport troops through treacherous mountainous terrain, where they have been ambushed, trapped in steep mountain valleys and captured easily by militants.

Wana is almost exclusively controlled by Ahmedzai Waziri tribesmen, who are considered friendly to the government.

The Ahmedzais routinely organize jirgas, or traditional tribal councils, to negotiate with the Mehsuds, another Pashtun tribe headed by Mehsud.