By IANS,
Islamabad: General David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command, arrived here Sunday on an emergency visit for talks on the Pakistani military’s offensive against the Taliban in the restive South Waziristan region along the Afghan border and bilateral issues.
Petraeus will meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and other officials during his stay here, Online news agency quoted sources as saying.
Apart from the South Waziristan operations, the discussion will focus on the war against terror, and the situation in the Swat Valley and the rest of the country.
Petraeus “will take into confidence the political and military leadership on the policies of the US administration” and “will also discuss the new equipment to be provided by the Pentagon to Pakistan.”
Sixty Taliban militia have been killed while five soldiers died and 11 were injured in the South Waziristan operations in the 24 hours to Sunday afternoon, the military said.
“The decision to send Gen Petraeus, who was treated for prostate cancer last week, shows the importance Washington attaches to (the South Waziristan) operation in an area it describes as an Al Qaeda safe haven,” Dawn reported Sunday.
In a related development, the US is rushing in equipment that would help with mobility, night fighting and precision bombing, while a senior military spokesman told reporters in Washington that the Pentagon was closely monitoring the operation, the newspaper said.
Pentagon officials also said that Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had spoken to Pakistan Army chief Parvez Kayani to emphasise continued US support.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said senior US officials were alert to the recent violence in Pakistan and “are watching the situation closely”.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recent military offensives had forced her to change her views about Pakistan’s ability to confront the militants.
Speaking about the south Waziristan operation, she said the Pakistani military was “very much focused on also going into the heartland of where the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda are located and where these plots and these attacks are planned and directed”.
The South Waziristan offensive comes after the security forces cleared four districts, including Swat, of the Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province of the Taliban. The militants, in a desperate bid to stave off the current operation, had attacked the Pakistani military headquarters Oct 10 and three police establishments in Lahore Oct 15.
The Taliban are also said to be responsible for four suicide bombings – three of them in the northwestern city of Peshawar, two of which occurred on successive days. The six incidents that occurred Oct 9-16 claimed 124 lives and injured many more.