NOT NECESSARILY RED ON RED...:

Heavy Fighting Reported in Pakistan (CARLOTTA GALL, 10/09/07, NY Times)

In some of the heaviest fighting seen in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani fighter jets bombed villages for the third day today as the authorities battled pro-Taliban militants.

Soldiers, civilians and militants have all suffered casualties in the fighting in the region of North Waziristan, but the reported figures have so far been impossible to verify.

Pakistan’s chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, said that at least 45 Pakistani soldiers have been killed since the first ambush on Saturday, and a further 20 wounded. Another 50 soldiers, who went missing on Monday, were able to re-establish contact today, he said.

The state of the bodies of 31 soldiers that had been retrieved by local elders — some of the bodies were decapitated, some burned — had led the military to resort to aerial bombardment of the militants’ holdouts, according to a military official who asked not to be named.

...but the reality is that if Pakistani loses force them to deal more seriously with the problem that's a good thing.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 9, 2007 12:20 PM