Pakistani Taliban loses "Hilton" complex in clash (Feature)

By Sajjad Malik Mar 3, 2010, 9:08 GMT

Damadola, Pakistan - Taliban guerrillas tired from weeks of fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan were once happy to check into a complex known as their 'Hilton' for rest and recuperation. Those days are over, however, because the installation was seized by the Pakistani military on February 6.

The complex, located close to the Afghan border in Damadola in Pakistan's Bajaur region, consisted of a large cave attached to about a dozen tunnels.

There were no lifts or piped music, but it was a relatively luxurious home away from home for fighting units operating in the pine-clad mountains.

'The Taliban used to call it their Hilton because this was the place where they would rest after they returned from fighting in Afghanistan's Kunar province or other parts of Bajaur,' said Tariq Khan, the head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, which leads the fight against the insurgents in the border region.

Facilities in Damadola were crude but included dormitories with mattresses and blankets and a canteen providing warm food for fighters, a welcome change from surviving in the field on a couple of naan breads and a large bottle of water a day.

In the caves and tunnels, whose entrances were carefully hidden from overflying aircraft, they would restock on ammunition while sheltering from US and Pakistani aircraft.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, might have stayed at the complex around the time he dodged a suspected US drone strike against a seminary that left 80 people dead in 2006, a security official in Bajaur said.

Undeterred by the aerial attack and an offensive by Pakistani government forces in late 2008, insurgent groups entrenched in the area went from strength to strength.

The region's treacherous topography and strategic importance favoured it as a location for the Damadola 'Hilton' site, which occupied only a small part of a network of more than 150 chambers and tunnels used by militants across Bajaur.

Damadola, located 12 kilometres from the border, linked Afghanistan with Pakistan's northern district of Chitral and the militancy-plagued north-western valley of Swat. For fighters heading toward Afghanistan, Damadola was a final staging post.

'It was the main hub of the militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely,' Khan said in the first official comments about the February 6 seizure of the base. 'They had occupied the ridges.'

Pakistani troops took the stronghold after a week of fighting that killed an estimated 75 al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents. The capture of Damadola was the culmination of a military operation in Bajaur that had been running since August 2008 and left around 2,200 Taliban and 149 soldiers dead, according to the military.

Khan said Bajaur is now clear of insurgents after his soldiers secured the 6 square kilometres around the Damadola area.

'Twenty-five percent of them [the militants] have fled to Afghanistan and 15 per cent to Swat and other areas,' Khan said. 'Others were either killed or captured.'

The number of militants in Bajaur was estimated at up to 5,000.

'The Taliban have been completely routed, and there is no chance of them returning to this region,' Khan said. 'The Pakistan military hoisted the national flag on the surrounding peaks for the first time since independence in 1947.'

The capture of such a facility might help bolster Islamabad's image as a dependable partner of the West after criticism in recent months of its resolve against the terrorists based in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

But in an area where tribal allegiances can vary from one day to the next, it is questionable whether this claimed victory is to have a lasting impact.

While the government promptly raised a local 'lashkar' militia of around 3,000 men to help consolidate the gains, some locals indicated that the loyalties were fragile.

'Some of us were previously fighting for the Taliban, but since they are no more, we are ready to fight for the army,' Niaz Ahmad, 30, a volunteer member of the lashkar, said while standing a few metres outside one of the entrances to the cave complex.

Around him, young men of the newly formed militia danced to drumbeats and brandished their firearms, chanting, 'Long live Pakistan.'

Other locals spoke fearfully of a return of the Taliban. 'Their commander, Maulvi Faqeer Mohammad, is hiding in the mountains and will soon try to reconquer the area,' one tribal elder said.

'The Taliban are very determined people, and we have heard that they are trying to regroup under Mohammad,' said a pro-government elder who requested that he not be named. 'The army needs to stay and keep guard over the area for a couple of years at least.'