Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani has quickly retracted claims he made earlier in the day that the military has finished its massive, two month long invasion of South Waziristan Agency.
“I may have said it in a different context,” Gilani insisted, declaring that the South Waziristan operation is “going on quite successfully” but declining to give any timeline for its eventually conclusion.
Pakistan’s military has claimed to have killed nearly 600 “suspects” in the offensive, but with the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership nowhere to be found, the value of the killings is somewhat dubious.
Gilani has suggested that an invasion of the nearby Orakzai region may in fact be in the offing, as the military struggles to find the elusive TTP leaders. The military has been bombarding the region for weeks, but has committed few ground troops.
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