The Taliban have hit back at Pakistan's claims of success in a major offensive, vowing today that their guerrilla war would expel troops from their stronghold near the Afghan border.
"We have not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan army in the area," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told journalists taken by blindfold to a mountain top.
Pakistan's main umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) arranged a news conference for journalists from the tribal belt a day after the military flew correspondents into South Waziristan to visit the battlefield.
A reporter, who was among those taken to the undefined mountain top, said Tariq sat on the open ground, without a rug or chairs. Bearded Tariq, who is the spokesman for TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud, was flanked by two armed bodyguards. This was his first direct interaction with journalists since the military mounted a major offensive on October 17.
However, the Pak army told reporters that troops waging a major ground and air offensive for five weeks had captured most towns once under rebel control in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's militant-infested tribal belt.
Journalists from North Waziristan were driven to the border of neighbouring South Waziristan in broad daylight where they were blindfolded and transferred into waiting vehicles.
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