Analysts: Taliban set up new strongholds

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Taliban militants have set up new strongholds despite Pakistan's offensive and will likely remain a potent threat to the U.S.-backed government, analysts say.

"The strategy has been bad," security analyst Imtiaz Gul in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said of the offensive that began Oct. 17 to drive as many as 10,000 battle-hardened insurgents out of South Waziristan, the southern part of a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan.

The Pakistani army has put the number of militants killed at 500. None of the Pakistani Taliban's top leaders are reported captured or killed, army officials said.

Accounts from villagers in nearby districts suggest many militants simply fled South Waziristan, the Los Angeles Times reported. Taliban and al-Qaida militants were able to flee the area easily because government and military leaders announced their intent to carry out the offensive weeks before troops moved in, analysts told the Times.

"You don't carry out operations after making such announcements," Gul told the newspaper.

"This area gives them huge space for mobility," he said. "So when crunch time comes, they can disperse to safer places, regroup, reorganize and hit the state somewhere else."

The Obama administration says it is pleased with Pakistani military gains against the Taliban in South Waziristan. However, U.S. officials question Islamabad's resolve to find and eliminate al-Qaida leaders and commanders believed to be hiding there, the Times said.