North Waziristan

Yes.

I mean, that, that's the other and the most disturbing thing was that particularly in North Waziristan, the Taliban faction that had me, the Haqqanis, um, operate with complete free will.

Um, my guards took bomb-making classes on how to build roadside bombs that would kill American soldiers.

Uh, they're training suicide bombers there.

And, and there is, you know, credible evidence that they're serious about this, uh, that this will go forth and go from the south into the north, where the more hard line groups are?

That's, that's the big test to me.

Will they go into the north, North Waziristan, where I was held prisoner-

Mm-hmm

Just yesterday, six Pakistani soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their convoy in nearby Hangu.

Pakistani forces also carried out operations in Hangu and North Waziristan that killed ten suspected TTP militants.

So Pakistan's security forces are dealing with attacks on multiple fronts across the northwest, and this is where today's bombing becomes something we need to watch beyond Pakistan itself.

For years now, Islamabad has accused the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan of allowing Pakistani militant groups to operate from Afghan territory.

And Al-Qaeda was able, again, through the letters I learned about this, to establish what we might want to call the drones pie nexus.

They believed that the ISI, Pakistan's ISI, was helping the CIA a great deal in North Waziristan, where most of al-Qaeda's members were hiding.

They speak about the area being infested with spies.

They were concerned, I mean, those who were hiding in North Waziristan, kept urging bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to turn down their language, their public statements against Pakistan because they wanted Pakistan to stop its support.

it supported the CIA with a drone campaign.

So there were many successes in terms of what the US was doing.

You can say it was relentless in terms of how they tried to make sure, to ensure that not only they couldn't be operational, they couldn't even move in North Waziristan.

And that comes out really clearly in the letters.

The World Food Program warned that more than 17 million Afghans are facing severe food shortages ahead of the coming winter months.

Finally, in Pakistan, security forces killed 15 suspected members of Tariki Taliban Pakistan, or the Pakistan Taliban, attempting to infiltrate Pakistan's North Waziristan district.

Large quantities of weapons and ammunition were recovered.

This comes after Prime Minister Sharif told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that regional peace and security is impossible while terrorist groups operate out of Afghanistan.