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08-03-2009, 05:20 PM
Officials: Al-Qaida forces in Pakistan battered
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 3, 2009 7:47:48 EDT
Al-Qaida forces in Pakistan have suffered significant setbacks over the past year but the organization remains resilient, two Defense Department officials said July 23.
Mike Vickers, the Pentagon official who directly oversees special operations forces, told reporters that while “al-Qaida’s senior leadership is reconstituted, to some degree, in Pakistan,” over the past year “they have suffered significant setbacks.”
“If you look at the number of al-Qaida leadership and, more importantly, operatives, part of its network, that have been lost to the organization in the past year, I think it could be characterized as a pretty significant disruption to their ability to plan and operate,” said Vickers, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities.
However, Vickers said, “al-Qaida has been a resilient organization” with a demonstrated ability to rebuild its capabilities.
A second Pentagon official, who was interviewed separately by Army Times on the condition that he not be identified, said Vickers’ characterization of the losses suffered by al-Qaida was accurate, and that most of the setbacks to which Vickers referred had “absolutely” occurred in western Pakistan.
Neither Vickers nor the other Pentagon official was willing to detail the operations that inflicted the losses on al-Qaida, but numerous press reports from the region have indicated a sharp increase in attacks in western Pakistan from unmanned aerial vehicles presumed to be operated by the CIA. “We’re not a proponent on that specifically,” the second Pentagon official said of the airstrikes.
The second Pentagon official also declined to estimate the number of al-Qaida operatives killed. “I can’t give you a good comment on that other than to say that it is significant and it is the AQ types that we’re talking about,” not members of other Islamist groups, the official said.
The Pentagon official took issue with news reports out of Pakistan that most of those killed by the airstrikes have been civilians. “It is having an effect on direct [al-Qaida] operatives, it is altering behavior and we’re very certain that … it impacts direct AQ operatives or those that are immediately involved in facilitating their operations or their safe haven,” the official said. “Unfortunately that’s not what you get sometimes when you look at the open press accounts.”
Asked how the operations against al-Qaida were altering behavior, the Pentagon official said: “All I can say is that we in the building see, and can reinforce what you heard from Vickers, that there is an altered pattern of behaviors that is being tracked through multiple other organizations in the government.”
In late 2007 and early 2008 senior U.S. intelligence officials “started to really talk [publicly] about how dangerous that part of the world was and how much they were seeing in terms of operations planning and activity,” the official said. “It’s attenuated measurably in the last 12 months or so. That doesn’t mean the organization doesn’t have the capability to attack, but the patterns that have been observed have been significantly attenuated.”
In addition to al-Qaida’s presence in western Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Pakistani government is also contending with numerous other Islamist insurgent groups, and the U.S. has provided a small number of Special Forces soldiers to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, which patrols the region along the Afghani border.
Vickers said the Special Forces troops conducted their first three-month course with the Frontier Corps late last year, and have just completed a second course “to train master trainers with the Frontier Corps and their operational units, called wings, which are battalion equivalents.”
By Sean D. Naylor - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 3, 2009 7:47:48 EDT
Al-Qaida forces in Pakistan have suffered significant setbacks over the past year but the organization remains resilient, two Defense Department officials said July 23.
Mike Vickers, the Pentagon official who directly oversees special operations forces, told reporters that while “al-Qaida’s senior leadership is reconstituted, to some degree, in Pakistan,” over the past year “they have suffered significant setbacks.”
“If you look at the number of al-Qaida leadership and, more importantly, operatives, part of its network, that have been lost to the organization in the past year, I think it could be characterized as a pretty significant disruption to their ability to plan and operate,” said Vickers, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities.
However, Vickers said, “al-Qaida has been a resilient organization” with a demonstrated ability to rebuild its capabilities.
A second Pentagon official, who was interviewed separately by Army Times on the condition that he not be identified, said Vickers’ characterization of the losses suffered by al-Qaida was accurate, and that most of the setbacks to which Vickers referred had “absolutely” occurred in western Pakistan.
Neither Vickers nor the other Pentagon official was willing to detail the operations that inflicted the losses on al-Qaida, but numerous press reports from the region have indicated a sharp increase in attacks in western Pakistan from unmanned aerial vehicles presumed to be operated by the CIA. “We’re not a proponent on that specifically,” the second Pentagon official said of the airstrikes.
The second Pentagon official also declined to estimate the number of al-Qaida operatives killed. “I can’t give you a good comment on that other than to say that it is significant and it is the AQ types that we’re talking about,” not members of other Islamist groups, the official said.
The Pentagon official took issue with news reports out of Pakistan that most of those killed by the airstrikes have been civilians. “It is having an effect on direct [al-Qaida] operatives, it is altering behavior and we’re very certain that … it impacts direct AQ operatives or those that are immediately involved in facilitating their operations or their safe haven,” the official said. “Unfortunately that’s not what you get sometimes when you look at the open press accounts.”
Asked how the operations against al-Qaida were altering behavior, the Pentagon official said: “All I can say is that we in the building see, and can reinforce what you heard from Vickers, that there is an altered pattern of behaviors that is being tracked through multiple other organizations in the government.”
In late 2007 and early 2008 senior U.S. intelligence officials “started to really talk [publicly] about how dangerous that part of the world was and how much they were seeing in terms of operations planning and activity,” the official said. “It’s attenuated measurably in the last 12 months or so. That doesn’t mean the organization doesn’t have the capability to attack, but the patterns that have been observed have been significantly attenuated.”
In addition to al-Qaida’s presence in western Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Pakistani government is also contending with numerous other Islamist insurgent groups, and the U.S. has provided a small number of Special Forces soldiers to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, which patrols the region along the Afghani border.
Vickers said the Special Forces troops conducted their first three-month course with the Frontier Corps late last year, and have just completed a second course “to train master trainers with the Frontier Corps and their operational units, called wings, which are battalion equivalents.”