US worried action on two fronts may miss goal

New Delhi: Pakistan's assault on the country's biggest Taliban stronghold may end in disappointment for the Barack Obama administration, which has pushed the army to escalate the fight and restore a measure of government control in the region.

US officials "worry Pakistan may be biting off too much" by attacking Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in the mountains of South Waziristan before defeating militants in the less-remote Swat Valley, said Daniel Markey, South Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Pakistan's ability to fight on a second front before gains in Swat are consolidated is a cause for concern, said a State Department official dealing with South Asia, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The US wants to see Pakistan restore sufficient control in Waziristan to counter extremism, the official said.

That goal is unlikely to be met, according to analysts. If Mehsud can be captured or killed, he would likely be replaced by Taliban leaders even more eager to fight US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, Markey said in a telephone interview.

President Obama says the Taliban's influence in a nuclear-armed state, and their hosting of Al Qaida forces in Pakistan's northwest, form the greatest security threat to Americans.

"Waziristan is at the centre of the fight" to reverse that influence, said Talat Masoud, a political consultant and retired army lieutenant general in Islamabad.

Waziristan's rugged terrain keep it the most autonomous stretch of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.