Pat Dollard

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“The feeling is that we are not dealing with a terrorist group here, but an insurrectionist movement,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “That’s an elevation without question from what we’ve been dealing with.”

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic militants known as the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan’s frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation.

Fighting over the weekend spilled into previously peaceful parts of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan and intensified in South Waziristan, Bajour and Mohmand. In Bannu, southwest of Peshawar, gunmen fleeing police took dozens of schoolchildren hostage for several hours Monday before tribal elders brokered a deal offering them safe passage, state-run television reported.

“It’s worsening day by day,” said Safraz Khan, a political scientist at the University of Peshawar. “People feel vulnerable. People feel scared.”

A disparate group of tribal armed militant groups, some of them linked to al Qaida, announced the formation of an alliance last month called The Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The 40-man leadership is from seven tribal agencies and eight bordering districts, underscoring the movement’s reach. The group is thought to have 5,000 to 10,000 fighters and is growing steadily as it gains momentum.

U.S. officials are deeply concerned that the insurgency is becoming bolder and expanding faster than had been anticipated, a State Department official said.

“The feeling is that we are not dealing with a terrorist group here, but an insurrectionist movement,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “That’s an elevation without question from what we’ve been dealing with.”

He noted the broad scale of fighting across the tribal agencies, which together form the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and in settled parts to the east.

“These are not groups of Pashtun brigands popping potshots at army patrols,” he said. “This looks like there is clearly coordination going on. This looks like an effort that appears to have been planned.”

Some U.S. officials think that al Qaida is providing the coordination, but others say it’s too early to reach that conclusion, he said.

(McClatchy)