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03/18/2004: "Another Movie in Pakistan"

When I first watched Blackhawk Down, I saw the dates and wondered where I was that day, what I was doing. Much emotional impact of the movie came from its basis in fact.

The War on Terror is yielding many such movies. Tora Bora is one example. Iraq provides more.

Today -- as we speak -- we seem to be gaining another. From Time Magazine

The government in Islamabad had been negotiating for two weeks or longer to try and persuade the Waziri tribal elders to hand over the three main tribesmen who are believed to have been sheltering al-Qaeda operatives. The tribes are heavily armed, and they're traditionally allowed considerable autonomy from the central government in running their own affairs. In response to the government's efforts, the tribal elders hemmed and hawed, and then refused to hand over the wanted men — who, in the meantime, had fled. At that point, an informant walked into the military garrison in Wana and said we think we know where these men are hiding, and they're not heavily armed. So, 400 Frontier Corpsmen set out in 13 trucks and 3 armored personnel carriers, but they were ambushed along the way by hundreds of Waziri tribesmen. It was a complete rout. The tribesmen killed about 22 government troops, and are holding hostage at least another 16. And many of the government troops escaped by running to different houses and pleading for mercy, asking to be given civilian clothes and then slipping away. Basically, they deserted.

After that incident, President Musharraf decided to break off talks with the tribes. This morning the army went in with loudspeakers and warned residents to evacuate seven villages around Wana. Thousands of families fled. Then the army started shelling these villages with heavy artillery, and firing rockets from helicopter gunships and planes. Even then, when the ground troops went in to mop up, they encountered ferocious resistance. The fighting has been going on pretty much into the evening.

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From CNN.com:

ROBINSON: What's interesting is speaking with senior Pakistani army officials. They were describing the tactics being used, which included very aggressive enforcement of homes that they had barricaded. They called them fortresses in this village.

They said that the enemy that they were up against was using very sophisticated mortar techniques, using mortaring shells against their forces and using target reference points that had been preregistered.

In other words, they had anticipated that at one point they would have to defend this location, and they had very significant defenses outlayed for them. That's why the casualties were so high.

PHILLIPS: If indeed this is Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is in this area that is now surrounded? What are the rules of engagement? Is it to get in there and bring him out alive and take him into custody? Or is that necessarily not the objective?

ROBINSON: Well, one of the things that the generals, the Pakistani generals that we spoke to yesterday and today, stressed was that one of the things in this engagement that causes things to slow down was their concern for collateral damage on innocent civilians.

And they again addressed the village, and they got the women and children, as many as would come out, to come out before they continued their attack.

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And from Reuters:

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The Pakistan government plans an airstrike on Friday at a group they believe to be cornered al Qaeda fighters, including No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, CNN said, citing Pakistani government sources.

"Sometime after light fall it sounds like they will go in with helicopter gunships and they may go in with fixed wing. ... The plan is to go in by air tomorrow, or at least first light," CNN correspondent Aaron Brown said, speaking from Pakistan.

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Also from Reuters:

Three Pakistani army helicopters attacked cornered militants near the border with Afghanistan on Friday, where troops may have trapped Osama bin Laden’s top strategist and second-in-command. “There is powerful firing going on by three helicopters, said a resident in the town of Wana, near the scene of the battle.

“They are firing machineguns and have dropped a bomb too,” he said.

Pakistani troops were also firing artillery, he said.

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As dawn approaches the rugged Pakistani highlands, I need to head out for the evening. I'd hope to come home to a happy ending, but that wouldn't be the best use of intelligence.... (Sorry, no time to find a link right now, but we can catch more friends of newly captured terrorists if those friends don't know of said capture; thus my hope to not know of any happy ending tonight.)

Thanks to Command Post (scroll down) for the heads-ups.
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I can't find anything which discusses the value of not immediately announcing the capture of a terrorist. Sigh.