Pakistan - Waziristan

Longterm low-level conflict, reactivated after 9/11. Related to the Afghan and Kashmiri conflicts.
 
A shifting conflict, originally between the US-backed Pakistan government and Muslim extremists, including the Taliban and al Qa'eda. Now the main protagonist is USA, while Pakistan seeks to pacify its home public and is concerned about US infringements of its sovereignty and resolving a political dilemma between serving its Western alliances and keeping Pakistani society in order. Waziristan is the old 'North-West Frontier' of the former British Raj, a mountainous, largely-Pashtun tribal area where the government remit is limited.
 
The conflict began in 2004 when tribal leaders started an armed resistance against incursions by the Pakistan army. This was driven partly by redundant fighters from Kashmir, who had secretly been supported by Pakistan's intel services (ISI) in their fight against India. This drew in the Afghan Taliban, international Islamists and al Qa'eda operatives. Al Qa'eda is now based in Waziristan. This is a throwback to earlier conflicts on the NW Frontier against the British Raj, with tribespeople fiercely defending their regional freedom.
 
The conflict has gone through many phases, including battles, bombings, assassinations and US tactical air-strikes, with deaths of many innocents as well as jihadis. Partially a religious conflict, of hardline salafi Islamists against, ultimately, USA.
 

Links:

Wikipedia: Waziristan
Reuters Alertnet: Waziristan