Since July 2007 -- when troops fought militants holed up in a mosque in the center of Islamabad -- the Taliban, al Qaeda, and their affiliated groups have made this the most violent time in Pakistan since its partition, 61 years ago.
In the last 14 months, 88 suicide bombs have exploded around the country, killing 1,188 people and wounding 3,209, the military told reporters. That's an average of about three people dying and more than seven people being wounded every day since last July.
Asked whether the most recent suicide bombing -- a 1,300 pound bomb that destroyed the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, killing about 60 people -- was a reaction to the Bajaur operation, Khan didn't deny it.
"We always felt there would be reactions in the cities," he said. "I think they thought it would lead to some negotiations. Fortunately, it has not."
Wanat, Afghanistan, is less than 30 miles from Tang Khatta, across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It is part of the Korengal valley and Kunar province, an area that's become so deadly it has helped make 2008 the most violent year in Afghanistan for both American troops and civilians.
On July 13, militants stormed a base near Wanat, killing nine members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in northern Italy. All U.S. soldiers were scheduled to come home in a few weeks as they finished their 15 month deployments.
"Clearly, we saw what happened in the Korengal valley as a watershed moment," an unidentified government official told the Army Times this week. The attack, the official said, caused the United States to rethink its policy toward Pakistan.
For years, the Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees a group of elite Navy Seals and Delta Force soldiers along the border, has been trying to convince the administration to conduct raids inside Pakistan, the Army Times reported.
After the July 13 operation, the administration did just that, and on Sept. 3, special forces soldiers launched the first major raid inside Pakistani soil when they landed in the area of Angor Aadda in South Waziristan, about 200 miles south of Bajaur.
The raid inflamed anti-American sentiment throughout the tribal areas, the adjoining settled areas of the Northwest Frontier Province, and the country.
"The government should respond" to the raids, Mohammad Sayid, a resident of Bajaur, told ABC News recently during a visit to Peshawar. "If the government cannot, then they should let the people do it -- and everyone would become a fighter."
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