ISLAMABAD // Pakistan, under intense US pressure, has agreed to launch a military offensive against al Qa'eda-linked Afghan militants in the North Waziristan tribal region, thge soon-to-depart US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen said on Monday.
North Waziristan is the headquarters of the Haqqani Network, an Afghan faction frequently described by US military commanders as a bigger threat than the Taliban.
The White House described North Waziristan as "the epicentre of global terrorism" in a report in October 2010 to the US Congress.
Speaking to US television networks, Admiral Mullen said the decision was taken on Friday during talks in Islamabad between Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Pakistan's political and military leaders.
"It's a very important fight and a very important operation," he told CNN.
Silent television footage of the meeting showed Mrs Clinton, watched by Admiral Mullen, engaged in a serious conversation with Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister.
Asif Ali Zardari, the president, was seen as a frowning observer.
The army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, sat in a round-shouldered posture with hands clasped, unusual body language for the normally ramrod-straight, stone-faced, General KAyani, a second-generation soldier.
Admiral Mullen spoke about the planned operation from the broader perspective of "closing the trust gap" between the US and Pakistan, which has widened since the May 2 US military operation that killed Osama bin Laden.
The al Qa'eda leader had reportedly lived for six years under the noses of a military garrison in the northern Pakistan town of Abbottabad, 100 kilometres north of Islamabad.
However, Mrs Clinton said, at a news conference after Friday's talks, that there was no evidence that any of Pakistan's political or military leaders knew of bin Laden's whereabouts.
The Pakistani media have interpreted Friday's meeting in the light of Mr Obama's repeated warning that the US would take further unilateral action against high-value terrorist suspects based in Pakistan.
Plans for a North Waziristan operation was first reported on Monday by The Jang, Pakistan's leading Urdu-language newspaper, suggests the public is being mentally readied for renewed, massive conflict in tribal regions.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, the Pakistani government has frequently used leaks to the media, and the subsequent public debate, to generate public support for major security policy decisions.
The Jang reported that Pakistan's decision to accede to longstanding US pressure to launch a military operation in North Waziristan was prompted by the only alternative on offer from Ms Clinton: a joint US-Pakistani operation on Pakistani soil.
Analysts said such a joint operation was politically unfeasible for the Pakistani government because of deep-seated anti-US public sentiment.
Imtiaz Gul, author of a book published in 2000 about militant strongholds in Pakistan's tribal regions, said: "People already feel so humiliated because of this Osama bin Laden thing and now they will have another reason to react."
The Jang quoted "highly placed sources" as saying the operation in North Waziristan would follow a similar pattern to the unfolding operation in Kurram, and earlier such operations in other tribal regions.
It said PAF jets would pummel specifically targeted militant positions before deploying ground forces, which have attacked with support from artillery batteries, helicopter gunships and tanks.
Pakistan's military has long resisted US pressure to attack Haqqani Network bases on its territory.
The Pakistani military's relationship with Jalal-ud-Din Haqqani, the network's founder, has been anything but adversarial, however. It dates back to the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, when Mr Haqqani was an important Mujahideen leader.
Charlie Wilson, a member of the US House of Representatives from 1973 to October 1996 who was instrumental in generating political support for the Mujahideen, once described Mr Haqqani as "the most pious man I ever met".
Mr Haqqani helped broker the September 2006 truce that has kept the peace in Wazir tribe-dominated areas of the North and South Waziristan regions.
Prior to the agreement, Pakistan troops had been battered by Wazir militants associated with the Haqqanis and foreign al Qa'eda militants who, until then, were openly living in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.
The deal was also crucial to the success of a counter-terrorist operation in 2009 against the TTP headquarters, in the mountainous heartland of the Mehsud tribe, because the Wazir tribe stayed neutral.
Mr Mullen's comments came after a Reuters report that quoted relief agencies of having been tipped off by the government to expect the displacement of 365,000 people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The huge number suggests the operation would extend beyond North Waziristan, which is sparsely populated.
General Asif Yasin Malik, the military commander for Pakistan's troubled north-west, which borders Afghanistan, announced plans on May 19 for a major counter-terrorist operation in the Kurram tribal region.
Residents of the adjacent Darra Adamkhel "frontier region" told The National that they were expecting a military offensive in the area, against the TTP faction led by Tariq Afridi.
The area had been cordoned off by security forces the same week as the bin Laden killing, and male residents have since been barred from travelling to the adjacent cities of Kohat and Peshawar.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Reuters