A build up of Western coalition forces on the Afghan border spread alarm on Tuesday among villagers in North Waziristan, a known stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda militants. The deployment will add to a mounting sense of foreboding in Pakistan that US ground troops could be ordered into Pakistan on covert missions or hot pursuit to eliminate militants fuelling an insurgency in Afghanistan that appears stronger than ever.
An intelligence official, who requested anonymity, and villagers said hundreds of coalition troops had been airlifted to a border area opposite the village of Lowara Mandi. "The movement of troops started Monday night," the intelligence official said, adding that armoured vehicles and heavy weaponry had been brought in with them.
A villager said he could clearly see the troops. "They were brought by helicopters. They are at the zero point," Akmal Khan, a resident of Lowara Mandi, told Reuters, referring to the disputed international boundary.
"They haven't moved towards this side." The deployment is in the vicinity of Camp Tillman, a forward operating base for US forces that has come under regular rocket and mortar attack in the past. ISPR spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said it was probably a routine movement and the media had created "unnecessary hype".
A military spokesman at Bagram Air Base did not comment on troop movements. A Taliban spokesman in Bajaur welcomed the build up on the border as a chance to kill more Americans. "It's a gift that they're coming here on our land and making it easy for us to kill our enemies, the enemies of Muslims," Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar, told Reuters.
The US-led coalition and Nato-led peacekeepers have around 71,000 troops in Afghanistan, 38 percent more than a year ago. Pakistan has up to 90,000 troops stationed in border areas, and has lost more than 1,000 men fighting the militants since late 2003, yet it is dogged by accusations that it has failed to do enough to stop fighters crossing into Afghanistan.