ISLAMABAD — Pakistan might launch a new military offensive in a district near the Afghan border where insurgent leaders are thought to have fled to escape a government onslaught against the Taliban, the prime minister said Saturday.
The suggestion of another anti-Taliban operation illustrates the intractable challenge facing this nuclear-armed U.S. ally: Even as it squeezes one extremist stronghold in its northwest, insurgents simply regroup in other parts of the rugged region.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the next front may be Orakzai, a district north of South Waziristan in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt. The government has launched airstrikes there, and the U.N. said Friday that about 40,000 people have fled.
“The operation in South Waziristan is over. Now there are talks about Orakzai,” Gilani told reporters. But he later backed down, saying “our military operation in South Waziristan is continuing.”
