Sanctuary (or perhaps just area) denial operations at the Afghanistan village level

[jcustis]

Found this in a 26 June edition of The Economist:

NATO's main enemies, the Taliban and two other insurgent groups, both linked to al-Qaeda and led by former commanders of the anti-Soviet jihad, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, are based across the border in Pakistan-in the city of Quetta, in Baluchistan, and the rugged tribal areas. This makes them virtually unbeatable: no counter-insurgency has been won against enemies enjoying such a sanctuary.

I have no idea what the author based this statement off of, but can anyone recite similar facts to take this from the anecdotal and into the historical? The clincher seems to be the term "such a sanctuary," where the discussion could get hung up (happens all the time here already eh?). Anyone able to hazard a guess at what the article is getting at with this statement, or the historical information to support the point?