The battle is now raging in the tribal regions of Pakistan. It was pretty clear Musharraf would wait until after the voting was done regarding his next term as President. And now with that out of the way there is a massive effort to destroy the massing forces of al Qaeda and Militant Taliban. Good background on the region can be found here:

Pakistan’s rugged tribal zones are the alleged hideout of Osama bin Laden and home to an array of militant factions—and if history is any judge, subduing them will be a bloody struggle.

Three days of some of the deadliest clashes since the fall of neighbouring Afghanistan’s Taleban regime in 2001 have left around 200 militants and 45 soldiers dead, along with an unknown number of civilians.

Al Qaeda has regrouped in the pine-dotted region, according to the United States, while militant sources say bin Laden’s son and possible successor, Hamza, has recently arrived there.

The area along the Afghan border, where conservative Pashtuns live with a rigid code of revenge, has for centuries repulsed outsiders who have come to conquer them, a lesson British and Soviet forces learnt the hard way.

‘They will not surrender. It’s their terrain, it’s their home, and they will fight until the end,’ said Rahimullah Yousafzai, an expert on Pashtun affairs.

Two reports on the attacks and their fallout can be found here and here. Something is definitely happening in the lawless regions of Pakistan right now.