This is a great news in the GWOT as Afghan, Pakistan and US forces take out up to 60 Taliban who stupidly must have been grouping to try and stop Afghan’s upcoming elections.

Sun Jul 17, 2005 11:44 AM ET

ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) –

U.S., Afghan and Pakistani forces have killed more than 60 suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters during the past three days in a series of clashes in the tribal lands in the North-West Frontier region, military officials said on Sunday. The fighting follows a warning by a senior U.S. official last week that forces on both sides of the border needed to squeeze the frontier region where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be hiding.

Also last week, a Pakistani general warned tribesmen in the North Waziristan region of an imminent offensive unless they surrendered Al-Qaeda members living in their midst.

Early on Sunday, Pakistani troops killed 17 people, some believed to be from Central Asia, along with women and children, after coming under fire when they surrounded two houses near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal agency on the border with Afghanistan, the military said.

The truth is, once people taste freedom and democracy, they realize there is something worth fighting and dying for. And they will never go back to a repressive regime. Bush knew this to be true when he established the policy of bringing democracy to this part of the world.

UPDATE:

From Reuters

Denouncing the London bombings as “unIslamic”, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf accused banned militant groups on Monday of forcing their ideology on others and said some Islamic schools were involved in terrorism.

Addressing a national youth conference in Islamabad, Musharraf said nothing in the Koran allowed for the July 7 attacks that killed at least 55 people. “Launching bomb attacks in London in the name of Islam is not Islam,” he said.

He accused banned militant organisations Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad) and Sipah-e-Sahaba (Soldiers of Mohammad’s Companions) of forcing their ideology upon others, although he did not link them to the London bombing.

He also took aim at Islamic schools that have been accused of helping to inspire the London attacks. Musharraf himself has been accused of failing to stick to a pledge to rein them in.

“Yes, today, some madrassahs are involved in extremism and terrorism,” he said, adding that the schools should stick to their traditional role of producing scholars, doctors and engineers.

It appears Musharraf is beginning to seriously crack down on the extremists in his country.