Austin Bay Blog

The BBC reports:

At least 100 people have been killed in three days of clashes between local and foreign militants in Pakistan, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao has said…

That’s vague. Foreign militants versus local militants. Who are they? Scroll down the report and discover this tantalizing sentence:

Hundreds of foreign militants fled to the tribal areas after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The report says the foreigners are Uzbeks and the locals Pashtuns. It warns:

Independent confirmation of the reports is extremely difficult as access to the area is restricted and telecommunications poor.

And then adds:

Reports suggest the latest fighting erupted after Taleban and local tribesmen demanded the mostly Uzbek militants to leave or disarm. But they refused to do so.

Tensions spilled over after an Arab militant was killed on Sunday.

Foreign militants had largely kept themselves to themselves and were not linked to al-Qaeda’s anti-Western agenda, but in recent months they are reported to have become more involved in local disputes, observers say.

The report says this battle could be the result of an internal power struggle.

It is possible that these Uzbek militants were or are aligned with Uzbek Islamist organizations that operated inside Afghanistan during the Taliban’s reign. To say with any assurance that they are “not linked to al-Qaeda’s anti-Western agenda” strikes me as a bit of a stretch. In 2000 CENTCOM regarded Uzbek Islamists as a threat to Uzbekistan, and thus at least an indirect threat to American and allied interests.

As I finished this post I went to google and found this article by the Christian Science Monitor. The CSM calls this a Taliban versus Al Qaeda fight.

The Monitor describes the Uzbeks as “Al Qaeda-linked.” That is a much more reasonable assertion.

From the CSM:

the Pakistani region of South Waziristan, fierce fighting between pro-Taliban tribesmen and Al-Qaeda-linked Uzbek militants has left at least 58 dead.

The Pakistani newspaper DAWN writes that fighting broke out Monday near the town of Wana, sparked by last week’s murder of an Arab reportedly linked to Al Qaeda.

Maulavi Nazir, a top pro-Taliban militant commander in Wana region, suspected Uzbeks for their involvement in the murder. …

Maulvai Nazir had strained relations with Uzbek militants due to their alleged involvement in local crimes, decided to take them on, banking largely on popular support for his action, government and security officials said.

DAWN reports that as of Tuesday, 42 Uzbek militants and 16 members of local tribes died in the fighting between the two groups.

The CSM also mentions the likely connection to the Uzbek Islamists:

DAWN reports the Uzbeks are associated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group that the US State Department says is affliated with Al Qaeda. The State Department writes that, since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, “the IMU has been predominantly occupied with attacks on U.S. and Coalition soldiers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” But the BBC reports that the Uzbek militants involved in the fighting “had largely kept themselves to themselves and were not linked to al-Qaeda’s anti-Western agenda.”

It does look like a case of “red on red.” Don’t underestimate the ethnic dimension (ie, Uzbek-Pashtun conflict).

UPDATE: The AP is calling it “tribal warfare.” Well, yes. It’s tribal warfare, with international overtones.