Pakistan border update

As strikes by U.S. drone aircraft in the border regions continue, resulting in a number of deaths, a breakaway Taliban figure in northwest Pakistan who criticized Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been killed. The death of Qari Zainuddin "is being seen as a setback for the government in its efforts to isolate Mehsud ahead of the security forces' next phase of their anti-Taliban offensive in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, says the BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Islamabad."

However, as noted here, the bigger obstacle to the next phase may be the apparently insufficient number of soldiers the Pakistani army is committing.