Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

The Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is an insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan. It involves the United States, United Kingdom, Pakistani military and Pakistani tribes against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The main reason for the conflict was tensions breaking out between Pakistan Armed Forces and al-Qaeda in 2004. 3117 Pakistani armed forces members have been killed, as well as 235+ tribe members and 15 United States soldiers. 17742 insurgents have been killed or captured.

Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Part of The Global War on Terrorism and the spillover of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Intelligence map: Navy intelligence maps shows the districts of the FATA in blue and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in green.
Date 16 March 2004 – present (21 years, 10 months and 1 day) Location Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (including the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas), Pakistan Status Ongoing Low-level insurgency Large number of insurgents killed while some fled to Afghanistan Heavy insurgent losses and substantial reduction in insurgent activity Tribal areas merged into Pakistan, tribal law abolished and writ of constitution established as of 2018 Reduction of drone strikes conducted by the United States in Pakistan Jundallah, Tehreek-e-Khilafat, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan join ISIL Jamaat-ul-Ahrar rejoins the TTP
Belligerents
Pakistan United States (see drone strikes in Pakistan)	Taliban-aligned groups Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan al-Qaeda Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Lashkar-e-Islam Jundallah Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi Turkistan Islamic Party ISIL-aligned groups Khorasan Province Jundallah Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan Jamaat-ul-Ahrar
Commanders and leaders
Pervez Musharraf Ashfaq Kayani Asif Ali Zardari Nawaz Sharif Mamnoon Hussain Arif Alvi Raheel Sharif Qamar Javed Bajwa Imran Khan Masood Aslam Tariq Khan Rao Qamar Suleman Tahir Rafique Butt Sanaullah Niazi  †	Noor Wali Mehsud Maulana Fazlullah  † Khan Said 'Sajna'  † Adnan Rashid Mangal Bagh  † Hakimullah Mehsud  † Abdullah Mehsud  † Baitullah Mehsud  † Maulvi Nazir  † Faqir Mohammed # Nek Muhammad Wazir  † Abdul Rashid Ghazi  † Sufi Muhammad  # al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri  † Osama bin Laden  † Ilyas Kashmiri  † Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim  † Atiyah Abd al-Rahman  † Abu Laith al-Libi  † Abu Yahya al-Libi  † Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti  † Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam  † Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan  † Sheikh Fateh  † Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah  † ISIL Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi  † Hafiz Saeed Khan  † Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost (2014–2015) Usman Ghazi  † IMU Group Usman Ghazi  † Tohir Yuldashev  † Najmiddin Jalolov  † Abu Usman Adil  † Mirzazhanov Atoyevich (WIA)
Strength
Pakistan 200,000 Pakistani troops Unknown no. of air squadrons of Navy and Pakistan Air Force fighter jets, including JF-17 and F-16 jets ~10,000 Frontier Corps United States UAV drones CIA operatives U.S. Special Forces	~25,000 TTP militia ~2,000 Lashkar-e-Islam militia ~1,000 TNSM militia 300–3,000 al-Qaeda militants ISIL Jundallah: 12,000–20,000 (disputed) IMU: 500–1,000
Casualties and losses
Pakistan: 4,631 soldiers and LEAs killed (per SATP) 8,214 killed soldiers and LEAs and 14,583 wounded (per the Watson Institute; by mid-2016) United States: 15 soldiers killed (2010)	29,398 militants killed (per SATP) 31,000 killed (per the Watson Institute; by mid-2016)
9,394 civilians and 1,946 unidentified killed (per SATP) 22,100 civilians killed (per the Watson Institute; by mid-2016) 45,369 killed overall (per SATP) 61,549 killed overall (per the Watson Institute; by mid-2016) 41,819 killed overall all over Pakistan (Uppsala Conflict Data Program; 1989–2019) Over 3.44 million civilians displaced (2009) Over 6 million civilians displaced (2003–2019)

During 2004, S.A.S. soldiers were ordered to take out a renegade police officer. Two men were caught by the police and taken back to the station. Tempers had already been running high because of an arrest by soldiers who had turned out to be agents working in the Taliban.

In 2023, the National Security Committee of Pakistan, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, decided to launch a new military operation to eliminate militants who pose a threat to the western regions of Pakistan.

Insurgency In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Media

• NWFP and FATA.jpg

  Air Intelligence map: Map showing the air domain of the districts of the Tribal areas (FATA) and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

• Map of FATA in Pakistan.PNG

  Military intelligence map: In 2007, the Uzbek IMU dominated the South Waziristan before forced out from the country by tribes and the armed forces in 2008.

• Pakistani soldiers in Swat - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg

  Pakistan airborne forces captured the highest point in Swat valley, 2009.

• Pak-army-sol.jpg

  A soldier of Pakistan army in combat position.

• Two JF-17 Thunders.jpg

  The locally built JF-17s were put on combat test in the South Waziristan offense.

• Marriot Hotel Islamabad Pakistan bombing.jpg

  View of the Marriot hotel after the 2008 bombing.

• MQ-9 Afghanistan takeoff 1 Oct 07.JPG

  An MQ-9 taking off in Afghanistan.

• The Pakistan Air Force's F-16s took active participation in the combat aerial bombing missions against the TTP hideouts. Most Pakistan Air Force combat air operations were conducted at night.

Related pages

• List of ongoing armed conflicts