Taliban end deal; Pakistan faces fight

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A decision by Taliban militants to withdraw from a peace deal in a tribal region close to the Afghan border threatens to open a new front for the Pakistan army as it battles the insurgents in two other areas.

Militants close to the border are behind a spate of bombings that are destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan. They also are blamed for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan, where violence is running at record levels eight years after the U.S.-led invasion.

The disintegration of the truce in North Waziristan was the latest failure of a government pact with local Taliban leaders. The agreements have been criticized abroad because they effectively cede space to the insurgents.

The current government offensive in the Swat Valley — which began after a peace deal there fell apart — and an artillery and air campaign in South Waziristan have been praised by the United States, which has been trying since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to get Islamabad to take military action against Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the border region.

Militants in North Waziristan announced Monday that they had pulled out of a peace deal with the government dating back to early 2008, citing attacks by the army and missile strikes by the United States. The move followed a weekend ambush by insurgents on an army convoy in the region that killed at least 16 soldiers, among them three officers.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas vowed Tuesday to avenge the attack.

“There is now a new situation in North Waziristan,” he said. “Let’s see how we are going to handle this,” he said, declining to elaborate.

The border region is a lawless, mountainous region where the central government has little control.

Pakistan began its offensive in the Swat Valley region in late May after militants there advanced on the capital, violating the terms of the peace deal. The military claims to have killed more than 1,000 fighters and has retaken much of the district, but most of the some 2 million people who fled the fighting have yet to return.

This month, the army began bombing targets in South Waziristan, saying it was softening up the region for an offensive targeting Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan’s major Taliban faction who has been blamed for many of the county’s most deadly suicide attacks in recent years.