DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: The Pakistani Taliban defied an ongoing military offensive and kidnapped 23 tribesmen who had met with the army chief during a recent trip to the area, intelligence officials, tribal elders and the militants' spokesman said. The kidnappings further threaten the government's shaky effort to convince hundreds of thousands of displaced members of the Mehsud tribe that the Taliban are defeated and that it is safe to return to their homes in South Waziristan. Taliban courts in South Waziristan are deciding how to punish the men and boys being held, and should have a “verdict” within days, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told The Associated Press. “This is a warning to the tribal people to not come to the area because we are still present in South Waziristan,” Tariq said via phone. He claimed the militants had seven Taliban courts functioning in South Waziristan, as well as 22 offices. The army sent some 30,000 soldiers in an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan more than a year ago, and it claims to have killed hundreds of insurgents while bringing most of the conflict zone not far from the Afghan border under control. The fighting forced some 400,000 civilians to flee the region, and many are now staying in Dera Ismail Khan and other cities near the tribal belt. Despite ongoing efforts by the military to get the civilians to go home, the numbers returning have been small. Those resisting cite Taliban threats. Mehsud elders said the kidnappings are a sign that the militants are angry with the tribe. “On one side, the government says peace is established in South Waziristan, and on the other our tribesmen are being kidnapped,” said Maulana Esamuddin Mehsud, one of two Mehsud tribal leaders who said they learned of the kidnappings from the victims' relatives. The 23, who include several students, were among those attending functions with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in the Ladha and Makeen areas of South Waziristan on Dec. 7. Kayani was visiting some development projects designed to show progress, including schools. The circumstances surrounding the capture of the 23 were murky. Meanwhile, suspected US missiles struck two vehicles in a Taliban stronghold on Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan Monday, killing 18 alleged militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The attack in the North Waziristan tribal region came in the final days of a year that has witnessed an unprecedented number of such strikes from drone aircraft flying over Pakistani soil, part of a ramped-up US campaign to take out Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters seeking sanctuary outside Afghanistan. At least 110 such missile strikes have been launched this year – more than doubling last year's total. Nearly all have landed in North Waziristan, a region that hosts several militant groups battling US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, including the feared Haqqani network.
