Is there an Al Qaeda - NATO connection?

The al Qaeda connection?

NWFP was hit by another terrorist attack on Tuesday afternoon when a suicide bomber blew up his car in Charsadda bazaar. More than 30 people were killed and nearly 100 others injured, including several women and children. It was the third suicide bombing since Saturday in the battle-ridden province. Suicide attacks have become a routine occurrence during the past few weeks all over Pakistan, especially in NWFP. A spate of terror attacks in recent days is obviously a backlash against the military operation in South Waziristan against the militants. According to a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, the militants have retreated from various areas in South Waziristan as part of their war strategy and its fighters will launch a guerrilla war once the Pakistani military enters deep into all areas of South Waziristan. If the Taliban have actually managed to retreat from South Waziristan, they have either gone to North Waziristan or crossed the border into Afghanistan. When the Pakistan army was deployed for the first time since independence in FATA in 2004, the US and Pakistan agreed upon a hammer and anvil strategy whereby the US-led NATO forces were playing the role of the hammer in Afghanistan while the Pakistani forces played the role of the anvil in our tribal areas. The roles have reversed now. Successive military operations against the local Taliban have crippled their organisation, which is why they could now be crossing the border to safeguard their interests. The alarming factor is that the ‘anvil’ is nowhere to be seen as the NATO forces have vacated more than half a dozen key security checkposts on the Afghan side of the Pak-Afghan border opposite South Waziristan. In these trying times when Pakistan is in the midst of a civil war, the international community needs to come forward and help it. Instead, the NATO forces are leaving the door open for the TTP to cross over to the Afghan side without any repercussions. This would obviously undermine the military operation.

The Afghan Taliban, on the other hand, have strongly denied any association with the TTP’s campaign, strategy or tactics. Afghan Taliban commander Abdul Mannan condemned suicide bombing and termed it un-Islamic and wrong to target innocent people in blasts. He said the Afghan Taliban leaders have not crossed the border and are not hiding in Pakistan, but are targeting coalition and NATO forces from Afghan soil. With these remarks coming from the Afghan Taliban, it seems as if there is some other force helping the local Taliban and from the pattern of suicide bombings, it could well be the al Qaeda network. It is quite apparent that the TTP is getting massive funding from some source and proper training to carry out successive terror attacks all over Pakistan. The al Qaeda leadership has on a number of occasions declared war against the state of Pakistan, which makes it all the more probable that this global terror network could be supporting the TTP in its fight against the state of Pakistan.

The military is trying to eliminate the militants from the tribal region but it seems as if the country does not have enough funds for the purpose. This can be gauged from Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s statement that the government is now using development funds for the capacity building of law-enforcement agencies in a bid to improve security. If al Qaeda is actually helping the local Taliban, it is not only alarming for our country but for the whole world. Fighting the militants on this scale requires heavy-duty finances; it is time the international community, especially the US, rises to the occasion and helps Pakistan in this common cause. Peace and stability in this region, once achieved, will translate into peace all over the world. Source
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Pakistan and NATO must attack and eliminate the Taliban new havens around Quetta

‘Taliban have new havens around Quetta’

* Washington Post says US grappling with rapidly spreading arc of Taliban influence
* US officials concerned Quetta shura planning cross-border strikes

Daily Times Monitor

ISLAMABAD: An American newspaper has reported that Taliban – headed by their fugitive leader Mullah Muhammad Omar – have new safe havens around Quetta, with US officials expressing concerns over the role of the group in the area.

“As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, US officials are expressing fresh concerns over the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around Quetta,” said the Washington Post. “But US officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta shura.”

Pakistani and foreign analysts said Quetta has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban’s rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan.

“In the past, we focused on Al Qaeda... the Quetta shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region,” said US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson. “Now... the Quetta Shura is high on Washington’s list.”

Although Omer and his associates keep a low profile, Pakistani and foreign experts say Balochistan has re-emerged as a “Taliban sanctuary, recruiting ground and command post”.

“Quetta is absolutely crucial to the Taliban today,” said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban. “From there they get recruits... suicide bombers are trained on that side.” Michael Semple, a former UN official in Afghanistan now based in Islamabad, described the Quetta region’s refugee camps as “a great reserve army” for the Taliban. (Daily Times)

Editorial: The so-called ‘Quetta shura’

The US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W Patterson, has told the Washington Post that “the United States has now turned its focus to Quetta”, claiming that the area has now become a major Taliban base from where “Mullah Omar and his commanders plan and launch cross-border strikes into Afghanistan”. The US-NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley A McChrystal, has also raised the matter of the “Quetta shura” as a major command centre for the Taliban bombings and attacks inside Afghanistan in his initial assessment to US President Barack Obama. As if to complete the message, a newspaper in London has hinted that the US could be making ready for drone attacks in Balochistan too.

The military spokesman in Pakistan says there are no Taliban in Balochistan. DG-ISPR Major-General Athar Abbas also says that the names given to Pakistan by Afghanistan under the so-called rubric “Quetta shura” are of Taliban commanders that have mostly been taken out while some are in Afghanistan: “Six to 10 of them have been killed, two are in Afghanistan, and two are insignificant. When people call Mullah Omar the mayor of Quetta it is incorrect”.

Pakistan has always denied the presence of Mullah Umar and his council of warriors in Quetta. The allegations have mostly come from western journalists claiming eyewitness accounts. That of course raises the question of how journalists can be privy to such goings-on even as in the same WP report US officials admit the lack of any credible intelligence on their part. Of course, the area is awash with about 400,000 Afghan Taliban who have been domiciled there since the Soviets walked into that country. These people indulge in smuggling, euphemistically referred to as cross-border trade. Surely, they could not be the “Quetta shura”. The problem is that the city has been a natural “fall-back city” for the Taliban because of its proximity to Kandahar. Even the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, lived in Quetta for many years till his father was killed by Mullah Umar here.

Western accounts regularly allege that Pakistan may not be forthcoming on the Afghan Taliban because it differentiates them from the Pakistani Taliban who make trouble inside Pakistan. This leads to the US “deduction” that since the Afghan Taliban are old clients of Pakistan and are not making trouble here, the “Quetta shura” might enjoy exemption from attack, thus indirectly committing Pakistan to backing the Afghan Taliban in their war against the US-NATO forces in Afghanistan. These accounts also flow from information contained in author Ahmed Rashid’s book Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic Extremism is being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia (2008) who notes that Quetta was host to the Taliban till 2006.

The fact is that Quetta is not a city that Pakistan can boast of controlling effectively, leave alone the rest of Balochistan. A VIP of the Quetta government can get killed in front of the assembly building in broad daylight. There is trouble in the province because of Baloch separatists who are supported by hostile intelligence agencies. The political consensus even among the elected members of the assembly (and there is a PPP-led government in the province) is that there should be no new cantonments built in the province, there should be no paramilitary force like the Frontier Constabulary and no police.

Balochistan was in fact the first territory in Pakistan to become like Afghanistan with hardly any writ of the state there. And that is over 40 percent of Pakistan’s total territory. But there was a time when Quetta at least was orderly, mainly because of presence there of Pakistan’s prestigious Command and Staff College. Now the army keeps strictly out of the city and the police is regularly targeted by terrorists. Also targeted are the Hazaras, a part of the old Afghan exodus, ghettoised in the city.

Pakistan cannot give the go-ahead to US drones. Even if a joint strategy is drawn up for their use, it is going to be very difficult for Pakistan to allow attacks on cities. Neither will it be easy for Pakistan to clean up Quetta. Every time Pakistan has tried to control the border, Afghanistan has objected to it. We have had to remove the biometric system at Chaman because of such objections. Similarly, Kabul has objected to Pakistan sending back the Afghans to their own country. The US must keep all of these factors into mind before embarking on a policy based on journalistic accounts with obvious slants. (Daily Times)

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US threatens airstrikes in Pakistan

From The Sunday Times

September 27, 2009

Christina Lamb in Washington

The United States is threatening to launch airstrikes on Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership in the Pakistani city of Quetta as frustration mounts about the ease with which they find sanctuary across the border from Afghanistan.

The threat comes amid growing divisions in Washington about whether to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan by sending more troops or by reducing them and targeting the terrorists.

This weekend the US military was expected to send a request to Robert Gates, the defence secretary, for more troops, as urged by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander there.

In a leaked strategic assessment of the war, McChrystal warned that he needed extra reinforcements within a year to avert the risk of failure. Although no figure was given, he is believed to be seeking up to 40,000 troops to add to the 68,000 who will be in Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Last week McChrystal denied any rift with the administration, saying “a policy debate is warranted”.However, with President Barack Obama under pressure from fellow Democrats not to intensify the war, the administration has let it be known that it is rethinking strategy. Vice-President Joe Biden has suggested reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan and focusing on the Taliban and AlQaeda in Pakistan.

According to The New York Times, he flew from Kabul to Ramstein airbase in Germany on Friday for a secret meeting with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the request for more troops.

So sensitive is the subject that when Obama addressed the United Nations summit in New York, he barely mentioned Afghanistan. The unspoken problem is that if the priority is to destroy Al-Qaeda and reduce the global terrorist threat, western troops might be fighting on the wrong side of the border.

The Biden camp argues that attacks by unmanned drones on Pakistan’s tribal areas, where Al-Qaeda’s leaders are hiding, have been successful. Sending more troops to Afghanistan has only inflamed tensions. “Pakistan is the nuclear elephant in the room,” said a western diplomat.

It is a view echoed by Richard Barrett, head of the UN Commission on Monitoring Taliban and Al-Qaeda, who believes the presence of foreign troops has increased militant activity and made it easier for the Taliban to recruit.

“If Obama sends more troops it had better be clear what they are to do,” he said.

“A few thousand more boots on the ground may not make much difference except push the fight into areas which are currently quiet because no one is there to challenge the Taliban. I cannot see any number of troops eliminating the Taliban. Obama has a really difficult decision to make.”

The debate has been intensified by the debacle of the Afghan election, which has left many European leaders struggling to justify sending soldiers to support a government that has been fraudulently elected.

According to preliminary results, President Hamid Karzai won 54.6% of the vote, compared with 27.8% for Abdullah Abdullah, his main challenger. But there have been complaints that fraudulent ballots may account for up to 20% of the 5.5m votes cast.

The Electoral Complaints Commission, overseen by a UN watchdog, has begun to recount about 10% of the disputed votes. Final results are not expected for two weeks. If Karzai is left without the 50% needed for outright victory, there must be a second round unless he agrees to form a unity government.

In the meantime, the country is in limbo and the Taliban is taking advantage, opening up new fronts in the north and west.

Al-Qaeda is also trying to capitalise on the uncertainty. Osama Bin Laden issued a call to European nations to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and threatened reprisals with an allusion to the bombings in Madrid and London. The recording, released on Friday, seemed to be directed at Germany in the run-up to parliamentary elections today.

The Afghan election has strengthened the position of those in Washington who advocate eliminating Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

Senior Pakistani officials in New York revealed that the US had asked to extend the drone attacks into Quetta and the province of Baluchistan.

“It wasn’t so much a threat as an understanding that if you don’t do anything, we’ll take matters into our own hands,” said one.

The problem is that while the government of President Asif Zardari is committed to wiping out terrorism, Pakistan’s powerful military does not entirely share this view.

Earlier this year there was optimism that Pakistan had turned a corner after it confronted a Taliban group that had taken over the Swat valley and moved to within 70 miles of Islamabad.

There has been tacit co-operation over the use of drones. Some are even stationed inside Pakistan, although publicly the government denounces their use.

Suspicions remain among US officials that parts of Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the ISI, are supporting the Taliban and protecting Mullah Omar and other leaders in Quetta.

It was to shore up Zardari’s domestic standing that Obama attended a Friends of Pakistan summit in New York on Thursday. On the same day, the US Senate tripled non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year.

The Obama administration hopes such moves will reduce anti-American feeling in Pakistan. A survey last month by the Pew Research Centre found that almost two-thirds regarded the US as an enemy.

Drone attacks on Quetta would intensify this sentiment, causing some British officials to argue that such missions would be “unthinkable”.

The Pakistani government is reluctant to take its own action, however. “We need real-time intelligence,” said Rehman Malik, the interior minister. “The Americans have never told us any location.”

Western intelligence officers say Pakistan has been moving Taliban leaders to the volatile city of Karachi, where it would be impossible to strike. US officials have even discussed sending commandos to Quetta to capture or kill the Taliban chiefs before they are moved.

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Taliban torch 10 NATO supply trucks: ISI laughs...

Taliban torch 10 NATO supply trucks

* Alternate route opened in Khyber
* Security camp attacked in Landikotal

By Sajid Ali and Sudhir Ahmad Afridi

JAMRUD/LANDIKOTAL: Army engineers on Wednesday built a temporary alternate route for traffic, including NATO trucks bound for Afghanistan – a day after the Taliban blew up a key bridge in Khyber Agency – as suspected Taliban torched 10 containers they thought were loaded with NATO supplies near Landikotal.

According to an ISPR statement, the army engineers also continued repairing the bridge destroyed by the Taliban in Khyber Agency’s Ali Masjid area.

The collapse of the British-era steel bridge had disrupted the supply of goods via the Peshawar-Torkham route to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The political administration said the bridge would be repaired by Thursday (today) afternoon.

Meanwhile in Landikotal, suspected Taliban doused with petrol 10 containers they thought were carrying NATO supplies, and set them on fire. With most of the containers reportedly empty and only two loaded – four were completely gutted and the remaining were partially damaged.

Camp attacked: The containers were torched as a security camp and bunkers in the mountains nearby came under attack. No casualty has been reported. According to an intelligence official, more than ten rockets, missiles and mortars were fired at the camp and outside the cantonment. AFP, however, reported that 15 rockets had been fired at the camp.

For the next few hours after the attack, the security forces hit the mountains with shells. (Daily Times)
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The aftermath of the possible suspension of NATO supplies through Pakistan .... An analysis

Handling the post-Mumbai situation

.....The suspension of NATO supplies through Pakistan will probably satisfy those who have recommended it as Pakistan’s response to the CIA drone attacks coming from Afghanistan. But this suspension will symbolically alter the status, in part if not in full, of a NATO ally given to Pakistan when it agreed to “comply” with the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 in 2001. The “expenses” of the supply line going through Pakistan are included in the payments made to Pakistan for its efforts to fight terrorism. An alternative supply route may cause several other anti-Pakistan developments to take place.

Finding an alternative route will not be easy. NATO is negotiating with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for a railway route that will have to be endorsed by Russia, a difficult possibility given the problems between Moscow and Washington. However, it is not impossible and if it could be done, two things would happen. The current leverage enjoyed by Pakistan will be gone. But even more than that, the final arrangement will change the status of the Central States now increasingly under Russian influence because of the alleged threats, in the case of the key state of Uzbekistan, radiating from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas. The inclusion of Russia among the states providing the support system to NATO-ISAF forces will change the strategic map further against Pakistan.

Has Pakistan finally decided to suspend the NATO supply route, and if it has, was any thought given to the downside of such a policy? Of course, no such decision has been taken officially. But the way the convoys have been burnt down one after the other signals to NATO that, at the minimum, Islamabad is either incapable of controlling its territory or is unwilling to invest in ensuring security of supplies. The Frontier Constabulary (FC) Deputy Commandant Rehmat Khan, talking to a TV channel Saturday, said the force did not have the additional personnel required for deployment at NATO terminals. Eleven more trucks were gutted as he said this. If it is some sort of signalling to NATO in response to drone attacks then it is important to ask the question of whether this will stop the drone attacks.

Just as Pakistan needed international cooperation to face up to the growing strength of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, events seem to have thrown “other” challenges before it. One good development so far was the quiet on the western border because of the normalisation process. It allowed Pakistan to focus more on internal threats. The Mumbai attack has changed that. Anticipating a formal accusation by India, given the trajectory of events, that the ISI was involved with Jama’at-ud Dawa, the government has announced that there are no links between the two. It has likewise declared that there is no proof that Dawa is involved in terrorism. Perhaps these announcements could have been reserved for a later occasion. Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already told Lok Sabha that the investigations are going on and Delhi has so far provided no formal evidence to Pakistan. Yet, the UN has already declared Dawa a terrorist organisation. Hasty that action may be but it shows the power of perceptions and how they can influence the course of events and politics.

This is a situation which requires Pakistan to co-opt the world. But the action-reaction pattern that has set in may make it even more difficult for Islamabad to do so. Pakistan’s “pulling out” of the NATO effort in Afghanistan might lay it bare to a more aggressive NATO-CIA policy of striking deep inside Pakistan’s territory with drones and missiles. Shifting dependence to the Central Asian states and Russia introduces a new “regional” element in the equation with negative results for Pakistan in its future determination of policy towards Afghanistan. It must be noted that after the 2005 suicide-bomber attacks against President Karimov mounted allegedly from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan of Tahir Yuldashev, Tashkent, which had stayed away from Moscow’s efforts to bring it into its sphere of influence, was compelled to go into a defence pact with Russia.

No one is thinking in terms of the movement of Chechen and Uzbek warriors from Central Asia to Pakistan’s Tribal Areas. But the world is wary of their potential to create mischief when they strike in Russia and other parts of Central Asia. The world knows that Central Asian rulers are all despots, but it is developing tolerance for them because of their resistance to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Among those who prop up these despots is China, which has suffered Uighur terrorist attacks in its western province of Xinjiang from our Tribal Areas. Together with India and Iran, these states will determine what kind of future shape Afghanistan takes. It is therefore very important for Pakistan not to isolate itself while responding to the challenges produced by the terrorists doing mischief abroad from its soil. (Daily Times, 15 Dec 2008)
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Destruction of NATO trucks - a joint action by ISI, Jihadis and Taliban? Another blackmail by the Mullah-Military alliance in Pakistan?

Destruction of NATO trucks and trouble ahead

While Pakistan awaits evidence from India so it can prove that it has the capacity to move against non-state actors threatening its writ and allegedly attacking other states in the region, another incident questioning its capacity to control events has taken place. An army of some 300 gunmen — official account puts the number on 30 — blasted their way into two transport terminals on Peshawar’s Ring Road on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.

A dominant view in Pakistan, expressed by former military officers in the media, is that Pakistan should block NATO supply convoys going through Pakistan. This volte face has come after a drone attack in Bannu. The “experts” on TV channels began demanding “action” after abandoning the earlier caution aroused by Pakistan’s economic downturn and the money the US pays for the passage of approximately 800 trucks a day.

The Taliban attack destroyed a convoy near Peshawar even as there were warnings from South Waziristan that the Taliban would undertake such an operation. The truck terminal was not given any reinforced security despite claims by the government to the contrary, and the attackers were given a free run. At the minimum this proves to the world that the Pakistan army is incapable of — if not unwilling to — putting down such elements and keeping its side of the commitment made to the US on NATO supplies. The supplies overland from Pakistan beget Islamabad the funds for mobilisation against the terrorists.

Pakistan is also haunted by the accusations made by India with regard to the origin of the one terrorist caught in Mumbai. The question is not whether the Indians are right or wrong. What is important, in real terms, is whether the world believes India or Pakistan. Pakistan denies that Ajmal Amir Kasab lived in a village named Faridkot in the Okara district of Punjab. Pakistani TV channels have gone to the village and shown people swearing that no Ajmal Amir Kasab or his named parents ever lived there, creating grounds for another media battle over who is telling the truth.

But a Pakistani journalist working for London’s Observer has collected evidence which claims to corroborate India’s allegation: the report is based on an electoral roll for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Dipalpur, district Okara with a list of 478 registered voters, showing a Muhammad Amir (father), Noor Elahi (mother) living in Faridkot. The parents’ identity card numbers too were discovered. This report is going to make Pakistan’s spirited defence irrelevant. The world is going to believe the Indian version. And that is where trouble is going to come from.

There is some “cleaning up” going on too but it might be too late and offset by the denials about Faridkot. The army has removed a Lashkar-e-Tayba training camp in Azad Kashmir, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad. The question is: why now? Accusations were flying thick about this camp for a long time. Informed Pakistanis knew that the camp was there, although camouflaged somewhat by the stratagem of allowing the outfit to take the role of a rescuer of people after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir, despite some “problems” that the outfit had with “foreign” NGOs working there and their female members.

The removal of the camp or its takeover after pushing the Lashkar out of there is a “precaution” against the possibility of Indian “precision strikes” against them. Similarly, the old Lashkar headquarters in Muridke near Lahore has been opened and shown to journalists to establish that no terrorist activities could have been planned there. India has denied that it is planning to use the military option; rationally speaking the military option is unlikely to redound to anyone’s advantage. Yet, passions and internal political pressures can do much damage and the Indian government is under pressure right now.

We hope that the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) yesterday took a cool-headed view of the situation. Realism rather than rage should hold sway despite an environment of Armageddon created by the electronic media first in India and then, in retaliation, in Pakistan. The army must step back and let the civilian government handle the situation without vocal, domestically targeted, diplomacy. This is no time to create unity of the people in favour of rash action. Pakistan has to make a special effort to prove that it is in control of the situation. The two sides must regain the ground lost because of the Mumbai attack.

It is time to measure Pakistan’s capacity to withstand the prospect of a multi-pronged conflict raging both within and without. No country in the world can afford to succumb to passion when its economic and political moorings have been snapped. Wisdom recommends that Pakistan take a sober view of the situation and act with flexibility rather than Quixotic bravado. This is also the advice that the Pakistani media should take to heart, and begin to show caution in place of challenge.

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NATO trucks burnt in Peshawar

* US military says loss of 160 vehicles will have ‘minimal’ impact
* Terminal owner complains of poor security
* Guards put number of assailants at 300, official says there were only 30 * Govt planning to launch operation

PESHAWAR: Gunmen blasted their way into two transport terminals on Peshawar’s Ring Road on Sunday and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply line, officials said.

A US military spokeswoman Lt said the losses in the pre-dawn raid would have ‘minimal’ impact on anti-Taliban operations.

The owner of one of the terminals denied government claims that security was boosted.

“We don’t feel safe here at all,” Kifayatullah Khan told The Associated Press next to the still-smouldering vehicles, predicting that most of his night watchmen would now quit their jobs out of fear.

Khan said armed men flattened the gate before dawn with a rocket-propelled grenade, fatally shot a guard and set fire to a total of 106 vehicles, including about 70 Humvees.

Humvees are thought to cost about $100,000 each, meaning Sunday’s losses may exceed $10 million.

The nine other guards who were on duty but stood helplessly aside put the number of assailants at 300, Khan said, though police official Kashif Alam said there were only 30.

In the second attack on the nearby Faisal Depot, manager Shah Iran said 60 vehicles destined for Afghanistan as well as three Pakistani trucks were burned. Shahedullah Baig, a spokesman for the interior minister in Islamabad, insisted on Sunday that extra security covered the terminals. However, Khan, the depot manager, said that was untrue, and there were only a handful of lightly armed police.

Operation: Peshawar police chief Safwat Ghayyur told Reuters the government planned to launch an operation against “miscreants” soon. “A plan of operation is in place as we have crafted a strategy in which we will have to go after them,” he said. agencies (Daily Times, 8 Dec 2008)

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Taliban torch another 53 US, NATO vehicles near Peshawar

* Police say no bullets fired, a few Taliban tricked guards to enter terminal

By Manzoor Ali Shah

PESHAWAR: Taliban torched at least 53 vehicles destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan in a brazen attack on the outskirts of Peshawar early on Monday – the second such raid in two days, police and locals said.

Armed gunmen shouting ‘God is great’ attacked Bilal Container Terminal near Jamil Chowk in Hazarkhani area on the Ring Road at around 3am, said Zahid Ali, a local resident.

He said he heard gunshots and explosions after which a large part of the terminal caught fire. The fire was so intense that the trucks continued to smoulder after several hours of rain.

City Superintendent of Police Chaudary Ashraf said it was a sabotage attack. The number of attackers could not be ascertained, he said, and it was not clear how they entered the terminal and set the vehicles on fire.

He denied any bullets had been fired and said the four guards deployed at the terminal had not seen anyone. He said four or five Taliban had probably managed to enter the compound, but added it was improbable many more than that were involved.

A senior police official, asking not to be named, told Daily Times two people entered the terminal and told a guard and the security in-charge of the compound they wanted to set the trucks on fire.

The police official said that more than 100 Taliban had taken part in the previous night’s raid on two terminals, but said the figure of 400 in some reports was ‘simply an exaggeration’.

He said it was premature to say if the attacks originated from Khyber Agency, and added that police and intelligence agencies are working on the cases.

A Pentagon official said on Monday the attacks would have a minimal impact on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and no effect on combat operations.

“The overall impact on our logistical efforts to resupply US forces, NATO forces . . . as well as Afghan forces has been small and had an overall insignificant impact to date,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. “There’s been no direct bearing on our immediate combat capabilities.”

Early on Sunday, Taliban gunmen burned about 150 vehicles including several Humvees, when they attacked the Al-Faisal and Port World Logistic (PWL) terminals in the same area.

On December 1, Taliban torched 21 vehicles at the Al-Faisal terminal and killed two people during the attack.

The PWL terminal had come under attack on November 25 when a bomb went off in its premises, but there were no casualties. (Daily Times, 9 Dec 2008)

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Read this report on BBC Urdu dot com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/12/081208_peshawar_attcks_sen.shtml
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Uzbeks, Arabs and other Muslims in the Tribal Areas are our brothers, and Al Qaeda and Taliban are not against Pakistan - says Qazi Hussain Ahmed

Qazi Sahib gets the limelight

Just as President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani were conferring about what to do about CIA drones attacking inside Pakistan, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, chief of the Jama’at-e Islami, addressed a jirga in Peshawar saying his party will block all supplies going to the NATO forces through Pakistan. He said his men will block all routes from Karachi to Torkham to prevent the 800 or so trucks that pass through to Afghanistan daily.

Qazi Sahib has upped the ante and can no longer wait for the PMLN to move forward on the judges’ issue to bring about the change he wants. He told the audience in Peshawar that “Uzbeks, Arabs and other Muslims in the Tribal Areas are our brothers, and Al Qaeda and Taliban are not against Pakistan and its nuclear programme”. By saying so he has placed himself at the head of the political elements that oppose military operations against the terrorists and has thus once again raised the profile of his party after breaking away from the JUI in the clerical alliance of 2002. It is a part of his “revolutionary” personality that he doesn’t allow his party to leave the political limelight. (Daily Times)
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US seeks alternative supply routes to Afghanistan. Russia agrees. What do Qazi and Imran want now?

Russia allows transit of Nato arms to Afghanistan (Dawn, 21 Nov 2008)

MOSCOW, Nov 20: Russia said on Thursday it had authorised the transport of German military equipment to Afghanistan through Russian territory, the first time it had allowed such a transit by a foreign state.

Russian authorities on November 10 “issued a permit for... the rail transit through Russian territory of arms, military equipment and military property of the Bundeswehr to Afghanistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“This will be the first experience of this kind between Russia and a foreign state, emphasising the close cooperation with Germany in the sphere of cooperation in countering mutual problems and threats to security,” it added.

Russia has since April allowed the transit of non-military supplies through Russian territory for countries such as France and Germany contributing to the Nato force in Afghanistan.

But this is the first time Russia has allowed military hardware to pass over its soil and the fact the agreement is with Germany is richly symbolic given the hostility in World War II.

The German shipments would use Russia’s vast rail network which leads into Siberia and then connects into Central Asian countries towards Afghanistan.

The foreign ministry said that the issue was discussed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a summit meeting in Saint Petersburg on October 2.

Relations between Russia and Nato have suffered a deep chill over Moscow’s war with Georgia in August but the two sides have maintained a close cooperation over Afghanistan.

Nato’s 53,000-strong International Security Assistance Force is struggling to put down a Taliban-led insurgency amid increasing violence. Germany has a contingent of about 3,300 soldiers in Afghanistan.—AFP

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Dawn, 20 Nov 2008

US seeks alternative supply routes to Afghanistan

By Our Correspondent


WASHINGTON, Nov 19: The United States is seeking alternative supply routes for Nato troops in Afghanistan, including a tortuous overland journey from Europe, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The United States currently uses the Karachi-Khyber Pass route for supplying 67,000 foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan, including 32,000 Americans. Nearly half of US forces operate under Nato command.

About 75 per cent of Nato and US supplies bound for Afghanistan — including petrol, food and military equipment — are transported overland through Pakistan.

Last week, Pakistan was forced to suspend supplies after militants launched back-to-back assaults on US convoys and hijacked 13 trucks.

The supplies resumed on Monday after Pakistan beefed up security along the route that passes through the lawless tribal region. But the attacks forced the Pentagon to expedite its efforts for developing alternative routes.

The Post has obtained US Defence Department documents showing that the Pentagon is seeking far longer, but possibly safer, alternate routes through Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

In September, the US Transportation Command sent a notice to potential contractors saying that “strikes, border delays, accidents and pilferage” in Pakistan and the risk of “attacks and armed hijackings” in Afghanistan posed “a significant risk” to supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan.

The Post noted that supplying troops in landlocked Afghanistan had long been the Achilles’ heel of foreign armies, most recently the Soviets, whose forces were nearly crippled by Mujahideen attacks on vulnerable supply lines.

The Post noted that last week’s attacks on supply trucks in the Khyber Agency was one in a series in recent months that had cost Nato suppliers millions in losses this year. In March, insurgents set fire to 40 to 50 Nato oil tankers near Torkham. A month later, Taliban raiders made off with military helicopter engines valued at about $13 million.

Forced by these attacks, the United States has already begun negotiations with countries along what the Pentagon has called a new northern route.

An agreement with Georgia has been reached and talks are ongoing with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, according to an Oct 31 Pentagon document. “We do not expect transit agreements with Iran or Uzbekistan,” the Transportation Command told potential contractors.

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Rough roads
Sunday, November 23, 2008

Transporting the materiel to fight the war on terror in Afghanistan has for many years been a hugely profitable business for the long-distance hauliers of Pakistan. It is Pakistani vehicles, their owners, drivers, loaders and ancillary staff who have all benefited from the US using the Karachi-Khyber Pass route to supply the 67,000 foreign troops – including about 32,000 Americans – currently stationed in Afghanistan. Almost 75 per cent of all NATO and US supplies including petrol, food, military equipment and possibly ammunition are moved overland through Pakistan. It may not be for much longer.

Militants in the tribal areas through which the vehicles pass en-route to Torkham have made a series of effective high-profile raids which forced the government to suspend the operation a week ago – resuming it last Monday after security was belatedly improved. Tens of millions of dollars-worth of supplies have been lost in the last ten months. March saw between 40 and 50 tankers burned out, and in April the Taliban captured a consignment of helicopter parts – which they will have no trouble selling on the international arms black market. The straw that seems to have broken the camels back was the hijacking of 13 trucks recently, containing among other things two Humvee jeeps. The trucks were recovered, the jeeps were not.

A report in the Washington Post says that the leakage along the route through Pakistan has forced the Pentagon to look for alternative routes. These will be more expensive in terms of the fuel needed to traverse them – but safer. They are likely to run through Europe, the Caucasus and some Central Asian states, but not Iran or Uzbekistan. Agreement for transit has already been reached with Georgia and talks are under way for a similar agreement with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The supply of foreign armies fighting in landlocked Afghanistan has for centuries been the Achilles heel of every nation that has fought a war there. The British in their numerous military adventures used almost exactly the same route as is being used today – but without interdiction by the Taliban. The Mujahideen almost brought the Russians to their knees by cutting their lines of supply. America and its allies are rich and powerful enough to circumvent the problem by simply walking around the Taliban in Pakistan. If they make life too uncomfortable here, Uncle Sam will simply take his business elsewhere, with Pakistan the loser again. It would have made both economic and strategic sense to protect our goods vehicles in their transit of the tribal areas. The distance is not great, there is only one road and it should have been within our capacity to secure it. We didn't -or couldn't - and it will be the Pakistani haulage industry (and the other big loser, the Karachi Port Trust) that will end up paying the price of poor planning and yet another failure of foresight. (The News, 23 Nov 2008)
Read more...

An analysis of drone / missile attacks on Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas. March-Nov 2008... Dawn, BBC, Daily Times Reports

1. The majority of the USA drone attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas are quite precise in hitting their targets, i.e. Uzbek, Arab, and other foreign and local militant training / operation centers in Pakistan's tribal areas. (Read the news reports below; also General Talat Masood's op-ed).

2. The Government of Pakistan must fully explain and support the drone attack policy on the Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the FATA. (Read Ejaz Haider's op-ed below).

3. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are using civilian houses as sanctuaries to inflict maximum damage on innocent civilians to gains sympathies of the local population. Pakistan Government must warn local tribes/ villagers to strictly monitor/kick out terrorists from their respective villages / areas.

4. Pakistan and the USA must improve the quality and precision of such attacks to avoid the unfortunate loss of innocent lives.

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Letter to the Editor (Dawn, 27 Sep 2008, http://www.dawn.com/2008/09/27/letted.htm)

Misplaced sense of sovereignty

WHEN militants, many of them foreigners of Uzbek, Arab and Chechen origin, undertake a suicide attack inside Pakistan, killing and maiming innocent non-combatant citizens, these acts are treated deja vu by the religio-political parties.

When American pilotless aircraft, the drones, zero in on and attack the masterminds of these suicide attacks, in the tribal area, the religio-political parties raise a storm of protest on the grounds that the sovereignty of Pakistan has been threatened.

The media too, inadvertently, follows the line of the religio-political parties and creates a hype and makes it look as if the Americans have done great harm to Pakistan while the other set of foreigners, i.e. Arab, Chechen, Uzbek militants, have played no role in a persistent effort to destabilise Pakistan.

Probably, the media and, in turn, the general public forget that the vast majority of the militant leaders that plan suicide attacks inside Pakistan are the former students of the seminaries controlled by the leaders who are in the forefront to raise a storm of protests, when an isolated drone attack takes place by the Americans but these leaders observe absolute silence when the militants carry out suicide attacks that inflict devastating damage on Pakistan’s human and material assets.

Sovereignty of Pakistan is being threatened by the foreigners in the form of militants for the past eight years, resulting in weakening the very foundation of the country.

Seen neutrally, it will dawn on critics of the drone attacks that the Americans are assisting Pakistan by annihilating the masterminds that sit in the tribal areas, plan, prepare and dispatch suicide attackers who play havoc with life and property in the urban Pakistan.

Let us admit that the militants are not only successful, through use of brutal force, in keeping Pakistan in a state of insecurity, they are more successful in spreading effective psychological warfare by creating the impression that their fight against Pakistan’s armed forces or its citizens is not an attack on the sovereignty of Pakistan.

M. SAYED GB SHAH BOKHARI
Peshawar

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A deal on drones?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 (The News, Editorial)

A report in a US paper states that the present government has struck a deal with the Washington administration, under which drone attacks will be vociferously protested but allowed to continue. In turn, under this agreement, the US will make no comment on these assaults across the frontier, but will not alter its policies. The report suggests that in exchange, no ground action will be conducted by US troops within Pakistani territory.

Certainly, even though it has been described as 'baseless' by the Foreign Office, the account seems plausible. It is also clear that the current government's aggressive offensive against militants has pleased Washington. But given the sensitivities involved and the unanimous resolution in parliament against US intervention, no strategy of deceit can work indefinitely. No government can succeed by fooling its people or attempting to keep them in the dark. The dilemmas we face regarding the war on terror needs to be addressed head on. This is not a battle Pakistan can win unsupported, but the nature of that support is a matter for debate. What is also needed is for people to be taken on board to fight the war, rather than left isolated and confused on the outskirts. At some point, Pakistan's government must consider coming clean with its people, taking them into confidence as to its aims and intentions and involving them fully in the effort. It may find more support than it anticipates for an all-out bid to oust militants as many people in our villages and in our cities seem convinced that there is a need to oust militants from our midst and retrieve the more peaceful existence we seem to have left behind somewhere in the distant past.

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‘US drone attacks not helping win hearts and minds’ - says Zardari 15 Nov 2008

NEW YORK: US strikes inside Pakistan are undermining efforts to win the hearts and minds of people, said President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday. “It’s undermining my (nation’s) sovereignty and it’s not helping win the war (on terror) or the hearts and minds of people,” Zardari told CBS News in an exclusive interview. He said the attacks were being carried out without his knowledge. He said the new US administration must let Pakistan deal with the Taliban on its own, as “we want to do more ... it’s our own war”. Pakistan would not allow the use of the Tribal Areas for an attack on the US, he added. agencies (Daily Times, 15 November 2008)

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Time for a rethink — By Talat Masood

American insensitivity to public opinion in Pakistan and Afghanistan builds up anger from which the militants immensely benefit. In combating insurgency, it has to be ensured that the pool of insurgents does not increase

The United States, blatantly ignoring public reaction in Pakistan, has intensified missile and drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. This has far-reaching implications not only for US-Pakistan relations, but also on Pakistan’s domestic stability, the military’s role in the war on terror and the concept of sovereignty.

There is no doubt that the US military and the CIA, with better intelligence and sophisticated technology, have been more accurate in their targeting. They have also been successful in hitting at least mid-level Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, and with less collateral damage. Apparently, improved targeting has been possible by integrating the latest technology with a reliable network of human intelligence that places transmitters at the right places for the drones to respond.

The political implication of the US hitting relatively mid- to high-value targets in the tribal areas weakens Pakistan’s case that the US is violating its sovereignty. From the American perspective, if these lands are not under the effective control of the Pakistani state, and the Taliban and Al Qaeda are operating freely, launching attacks on US and NATO troops from their FATA safe havens, then there is no option but to act. The strike that took out Rashid Rauf in North Waziristan clearly demonstrated this weakness.

US strikes are putting the militants on the defensive, keeping them off balance, and according to ISAF, have reduced the Taliban and Al Qaeda’s ability to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. If the pressure on these militant forces is sustained, their sanctuaries will shrink, which would have a salutary effect all around.

The other side of the picture that, for Pakistan, these strikes are a huge embarrassment. An ally is challenging its sovereignty and independence repeatedly and humiliatingly. Another serious problem is that these drone and missile strikes are gradually creeping forward to the settled areas. A government that is already under criticism and has credibility issues is being made to look helpless in the face of US attacks. The leadership, especially President Asif Zardari, is losing popularity and no one is prepared to take seriously the official condemnations that follow every incident.

The intensification of air strikes could in the long-term further fuel the insurgency by aligning several militant groups to work together and weaken the democratic government. This war has to be won through the people’s support, and the advantage that a democratically elected government has over a dictatorship is obliterated if the former is seen as helpless against US strikes. In fact, drone strikes are diverting attention from combating insurgency, and anti-Americanism is on the rise. And even if the militants seem to be losing tactically in the short-term, there will be a long-term rise in the number of militants as well as the number of alienated people. There is further negative blowback as the militants hold the government complicit in these attacks.

It is widely believed that a tacit agreement exists between the US and Pakistan, and it is for that reason that the Pakistani leadership only makes noises without reciprocating effectively. It is possible that President Musharraf may have given verbal approval for strikes against high-value targets. It was widely reported that President Bush had given permission for incursions inside Pakistani territory in July this year.

The serious flaw in this policy, however, is that it sets a bad precedent. Other countries may follow suit and start carrying out strikes inside another state on the basis of assumed potential threat.

With relatively better security for hard targets in Pakistan, militants are now aiming at soft targets, including mosques, funerals, sports events and cultural festivals. The government could have capitalised on the revulsion generated against the Taliban for these inhumane and dastardly acts if it was not perceived to be weak for not taking a firm position against the US.

No one expects, or wishes, that Pakistan should respond militarily to US incursions, for that would be most imprudent. But it could seek to renegotiate the terms of agreement in the war on terror. That most coalition supplies and logistics pass through Pakistan could give it greater leverage.

Interestingly, NATO is now claiming that all round cooperation and coordination with Pakistan Army is good, and insurgents on both sides of the border are being kept under pressure. The improved level of cooperation is due to President Zardari and COAS General Kayani’s commitment to combating insurgency. They are clear on where they stand with the militants, which is different from General Musharraf’s policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

As the level of trust with NATO and the US has improved, there is no reason why the US should not seriously review its policy on drone and missile strikes inside Pakistani territory. The fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban on Pakistani soil has to be left solely to the Pakistani military. In the process, it may suffer casualties, but the country would be saved from instability. The US should primarily focus on economic activity and assist Pakistan in building its capacities, which includes sharing of technology and intelligence with the Pakistani military.

American insensitivity to public opinion in Pakistan and Afghanistan builds up anger from which the militants immensely benefit. In combating insurgency, it has to be ensured that the pool of insurgents does not increase while the militants are being eliminated. It is self-defeating to increase the size of the enemy and reduce one’s support base. In this context, our army’s policy of playing on internal fissures among the tribes to re-establish state control has its merits, if executed properly.

Hopefully, the incoming president will improve America’s image as a world leader, and will adhere to international law to gain support of the people, especially in countries with whom the US is allied in the war on terror.

The writer is a retired Lieutenant General of the Pakistan Army. He can be reached at talat@comsats.net.pk (Daily Times, 27 Nov 2008)


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Let’s give Mr Mukhtar an easier ministry —Ejaz Haider (Daily Times, 10 Nov 2008)

It is more untenable to abdicate all responsibility for the drone strikes. Even if we weren’t calling for them, if the strikes do end up taking out targets, the cost of owning them would have been much less than creating an impression that there is damn-all we can do about them

Forgive my lack of politeness but sometimes it serves to get right to the point. The government should immediately relieve Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar of his current portfolio.

Mr Mukhtar is a senior PPP leader and has done much for the party. Given that and given our system of patronage, he should be rewarded. So that’s not the point of contention. He should be a minister; only, the ministry of defence can do without him and be none the worse for it. Here’s why.

It is a matter of consternation that despite the rhetoric about civil-military imbalance and the presumed need for civilians to develop the capacity to effectively monitor the military, the defence ministry has never really been given the importance it should have been accorded. Surprising, because one would have thought that civilian governments would attempt, through various measures, to reclaim the powers of the ministry.

That has not happened. If anything, either the MoD has not had a full-time minister or it has been treated as a peripheral ministry. Mr Mukhtar as defence minister is about as useful as Huckleberry Finn would be at the head of a fighting corps.

Mr Mukhtar is a decent man, no doubt about that. But he is inarticulate, knows nothing about his current job, says things that are either patently wrong or undiplomatic or both, and, just notice his expression the next time he talks to the press, looks visibly and completely distraught by his current calling.

The bloody Americans won’t stop drone attacks and he is in the unenviable position of having to explain the strikes to a media bristling with sovereignty. What does he say: “Hum iss qabil nahin keh Amreeki fauj say larr sakain”. Excuse me? That’s not what the parliament said. The parliament, of which Mr Mukhtar is a part, said it would defend the sovereignty of this country come what may.

Here’s the problem. Because Mr Mukhtar doesn’t know the nuances, he can say one of two things. “We will defend our sovereignty”, in which case people will ask why the drone attacks continue. Or he can say “We can’t fight the Americans”, in which case while people will “understand” why drone attacks will continue, the “reality” is not going to do much for the reputation of either the army or the civilian government.

Of course he could have, if only he had known how to, explained the drone attacks as strikes that may not be entirely unilateral. He could have talked about how targets and target areas are identified, surveilled, reconnoitred and then engaged. He could have explained the cooperative framework in which troops on both sides are trying to counter the threat and the political compulsions that continue to create tensions. He could have spoken of the difference between a unilateral ground incursion and a drone attack.

And if he wants to use the capability framework, then he could have perhaps detailed the difference between a ground incursion, which can be fought off, and aerial attacks that are more difficult to counter because that is where the technology differential comes in.

Capability is not something one either has or doesn’t. It is multilayered. Insurgencies prove that a weaker adversary can take on a stronger one by pulling the latter into a contested zone. There are multiple ways in which the advantage of a stronger adversary can be blunted on the ground. But fighting such a war has its own costs because it will generally be fought on the defender’s terrain. The attacker will always have the option of cutting his losses and getting out. His mainland, assets and infrastructure remain secure.

The question is: Are we ready to fight such a war? Even more importantly, do we consider the United States an adversary?

What Mr Mukhtar has said implies that. Except that he has basically thrown in the towel by saying that we can’t fight the Americans. His statement is not only wrong but shows a degree of pusillanimity which the nation would automatically contrast with the supposed courage of those who are not only fighting the Americans but who the Americans now want to dialogue with.

Essentially this means the following: we can’t fight the Americans so we have to accept what comes our way; worse, we are fighting those who are fighting the Americans because we have been coerced into doing so. There goes the shibboleth about this being “our war”.

So, Mr Mukhtar not only knows next to nothing about military affairs, he also needs to get a lesson or two in logic and understand the implications of what he says.

Let’s be clear: we can fight the Americans. But it will be very costly. Any armed struggle must weigh the costs with any perceived benefits. On the other hand, should we fight the Americans? Are the Chinese fighting the Americans, or the Indians rolling up their sleeves?

No. They understand that it is much more sensible to raise one’s stock within the current global architecture than opting out and bearing the costs of that decision. As Sun Tzu said: “Preserving the enemy’s army is best, destroying it second-best”. Let it be said that this statement needs to be read figuratively rather than literally.

Pakistan and the US are in a cooperative mode in Afghanistan. This is not a tension-free relationship. But neither is it one that calls for overt hostilities. The paradigm used by Islamabad so far has been flawed. Ditto for Washington.

Most drone attacks, if not all, are strikes called by us. Is it wrong if we don’t have the capability and ask an ally to help us with such a platform? No. But if there are political costs then Islamabad should have fought hard to acquire UCAV (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) capability because that would have put to rest the issue of these strikes.

Politically too, it is more untenable over the longer run to abdicate all responsibility for such strikes. Even if we weren’t calling for them, if the strikes do end up taking out targets, the cost of owning them would have been much less than creating an impression that the Americans are doing this unilaterally and there is damn-all we can do about them.

Time to rethink what we say. Meanwhile, how about giving some other ministry to Mr Mukhtar to reward him for his services to the PPP.

Ejaz Haider is Consulting Editor of The Friday Times and Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times. He can be reached at sapper@dailytimes.com.pk (Daily Times)

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(Asadullah Ghalib, Express, 27 Nov 2008)

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Rashid Rauf, Abu Al-Asr among five killed in U.S. missile strike
Updated at: 1225 PST, Saturday, November 22, 2008 (The News)

PESHAWAR: Al-Qaeda’s operatives Rashid Rauf and Abu Al-Asr Al Misri have been reportedly killed in suspected U.S. missiles strikes in North Waziristan on Saturday.

A U.S. spy plane fired two missiles early Saturday at the house of one Khaliq Noor in Alikhel area of North Waziristan, killing five people, including three foreigners, and injuring six others.

The attack came just two days after Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the U.S. ambassador over missile attacks on its territory.

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UK militant 'killed in Pakistan' (BBC News, 22 Nov 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7743334.stm

Rashid Rauf escaped from police custody in Pakistan in 2007

A fugitive British militant linked to an alleged UK plot to use liquid bombs to blow up transatlantic airliners has been killed in Pakistan, reports say.

Pakistani media said Rashid Rauf, born in Birmingham, was killed in a US air strike in North Waziristan, a haven for militants and the Taleban.

Mr Rauf, on the run after escaping from Pakistani custody, was seen as a link between the UK plotters and Pakistan.

Three men were convicted in the UK in September of conspiracy to murder.

News of the liquid bomb plot paralysed global air travel, prompting authorities to implement stringent security measures at airports around the world.

Rashid Rauf was arrested in Pakistan on 9 August 2006, at the request of US authorities, who feared he was about to disappear into the remote north-west of the country.

ALLEGED LIQUID BOMB PLOT
Group accused of plotting to carry liquid explosives onto planes at London Heathrow Airport
Arrests in August 2006, after Rashid Rauf detained in Pakistan
Move prompted increased security at UK and US airports
At trial, three men convicted of conspiracy to murder
None found guilty of conspiring to target passenger aircraft

Profile: Rashid Rauf

One day later authorities in the UK and the US implemented strict security measures at airports, fearing possible bomb attacks.

Hundreds of flights were delayed at airports around the world with massive disruption at major UK terminals and in the US, amid security service fears that militants were planning to mix liquids into lethal explosives.

Terrorism charges against the Briton were eventually dropped but he remained under detention in Pakistan as a "preventative measure".

Mr Rauf, who is thought to have Pakistani citizenship through his family connections, then escaped custody in December 2007 while on his way to an extradition hearing under police guard.

West Midlands Police in the UK were seeking his extradition from Pakistan as a suspect in the murder of his uncle, who was killed six years ago.

'Safe haven'

Several Pakistani TV channels reported that Mr Rauf was one of five people killed on Saturday by a presumed US attack in the country's remote north-western region.

Unnamed Pakistani intelligence sources said that a wanted Egyptian militant, Abu Zubair al-Masri, was among the others killed.

map
However, the BBC has so far been unable to independently confirm the news.

A young Asian woman at the Rauf family home in the Ward End area of Birmingham said they had had no confirmation of his death, and no contact from Britain's Foreign Office.

She said the family wanted to be left alone "to deal with this".

Islamist militants use the mountainous tribal areas along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan as a safe haven for training and resupply.

The US regularly uses pilotless drones to attack militant targets in the region, a tactic that has caused growing resentment among Pakistan's leaders.

On Thursday the government summoned the US ambassador in Islamabad to protest one day after an attack deep inside Pakistani territory killed five people - including at least one alleged militant.

Pakistan says the constant missile strikes infringe its sovereignty. The BBC's Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says the attacks spark widespread anger in Pakistan - especially among tribal figures.

In that context, Saturday's attack will be reported in Pakistan as another violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and not for the possible killing of Rashid Rauf, our correspondent says.

The US says the insurgents use the territory to launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has been pursuing a policy of ad-hoc peace deals with local Taleban commanders.



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US adds settled area to hit list: Al Qaeda’s Arab operative killed in Bannu attack

By Abdul Salam (Dawn)

BANNU, Nov 19: A suspected US drone fired two missiles on a residential compound in Janikhel area of Bannu district on Tuesday night, killing four people and injuring four others, officials said.

This was the first time that a drone intruded 70kms deep inside Pakistani territory and hit a target in the settled area of the NWFP.

Local people reported having seen spy planes flying over the area.

Officials said that the house of a retired serviceman, Dilbar Khan, in Handikhel village, some 15kms southwest of Bannu city, had been hit.

One Arab, two Turkmen and a local militant were killed in the pre-dawn attack. Janikhel is adjacent to the volatile North Waziristan tribal region where drones often fly and hit targets.

Naib Nazim of the Handikhel union council Mir Salam confirmed the missile attack but did not give details of casualties.

Sources said that two injured people, Abdul Hakeem and Rafeeullah, were taken to the Mission Hospital in the city. But they were taken away from the hospital by some unidentified people.

Some people in Bannu said that drones had been flying over the area at low altitude for a few days.

AFP adds: A senior security official in Peshawar said that a major Arab Al Qaeda operative was among six militants killed in the overnight missile strike.

Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam Al-Saudi, a senior member of Osama bin Laden’s terror network who, they said, American intelligence officials had identified as the main link between Al Qaeda’s senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region.

“He was the man coordinating between Al Qaeda and Taliban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters,” the official said.

Bannu police officer Alam Sheerani also confirmed the first-ever such attack in the area but did not give details of casualties.

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Another US drone strike kills 14 in N Waziristan 15 Nov 2008

* 14 wounded as missiles target house rented by Al Badar terrorist group in Miranshah
* Army confirms attack, says it has informed government

MIRANSHAH: A missile from a suspected United States drone killed 14 people when it hit a house in the outskirts of Miranshah in North Waziristan tribal area on Friday.

It was the fourth such strike in a week.

The pre-dawn strike destroyed the house and 14 people were killed, an official told Reuters, adding that another 14 people were wounded.

Al Badar terrorist group: The men were believed to be terrorists, locals said, adding that the house hit in the Tol Khel area had been rented by an Afghan terrorist organisation, Al Badar, and was being used as an office.

Army confirms: “We confirm a missile attack at around 5.30 in the morning (on Thursday) ... We have informed the government,” said military spokesman Major Murad Khan.

Khan gave no more details but security officials in the region said 14 people had been killed and about 12 wounded.

Residents said two missiles were fired at a former government school where terrorists and their families were living.

Gul Zaman Wazir, a local resident, told AP by phone that drone aircraft were heard before the attack.

“They kept on circling in the sky for about two hours,” Wazir said. “Then we heard a big bang.”

A large number of terrorists later sealed off the area, he said.

Al Badar, backed by former guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has previously conducted operations against Afghan and international forces based across the border in Afghanistan, residents and a security official said.

Hekmatyar was briefly prime minister of Afghanistan in the 1990s after the end of its Soviet occupation. He has backed the Taliban since the regime was removed from power following the US-led invasion of the country in 2001, after the September 11 attacks in the United States, and has demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Missile strikes targeting terrorists in Pakistan in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan. Pakistan does not have missile-equipped drones.

Thirty-eight people, including women and children, have been killed in the past week’s missile attacks.

Fears about Afghanistan’s future and frustration with Pakistani efforts to tackle the terrorists have led to more US missile attacks by drone aircraft in Pakistan.

About a dozen strikes this year have killed scores of terrorists and civilians. agencies (Daily Times, 15 Nov 2008)

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Drone attacks in FATA: USA, carry on the good work. Keep killing the terrorists of Al-Qaeda and Taliban; Avoid collateral damage to innocent civilians

Nine Arabs among 13 killed in drone attack

By Our Correspondent

MIRAMSHAH, Nov 14: Nine foreigners and four local tribesmen were killed and seven people injured in a missile attack on a residential compound in Shagai village of North Waziristan on Friday.

The attack is believed to have been carried out by a US drone.

Local authorities said that the plane fired three missiles on the house of one Amir Khan. The village in Gariam area is about 40km from here.

Amir Khan’s father was killed last year in a clash with Nato forces in Afghanistan.

This was the second missile attack in a week in the area adjacent to South Waziristan.

Thirteen suspected militants were killed in the last attack on Nov 7.

Intelligence sources said that nine Arabs and the owner of the house were among the 13 people killed in Friday’s attack. However, this could not be confirmed from independent sources.

Local people said that unmanned planes had been continuously flying over Miramshah and other parts of the agency for some days. (Dawn)

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US drone attack kills 13 in Waziristan

8 Nov 2008

* Five foreigners also dead as four missiles destroy Al Qaeda training camp in Razmak

MIRANSHAH/PESHAWAR: Thirteen people were killed as suspected US drones fired two missiles at a house in North Waziristan Agency on Friday.

The missiles struck the house in Kamshaam in Razmak tehsil of the agency at 10:30am. Kamshaam is 60 kilometres south of agency headquarters Miranshah. The house belonged to a tribesman, Ghani Gul.

Foreigners: Reuters quoted officials as saying the 13 ‘militants’ included five foreigners.

Latifur Rehman, a senior government official in the region, told Reuters the missiles hit a ‘militant’ compound.

“It was an accurate strike and the compound has been destroyed,” Rehman said.

“It’s remote so information is coming slowly but we can confirm that four missiles killed eight Pakistani Taliban and five guests,” an intelligence official said.

There was no information about the nationality of any of those killed but North Waziristan is known as a sanctuary for Taliban and Al Qaeda.

AFP said 14 ‘militants’ were killed in the strike that destroyed an Al Qaeda training camp. Security sources said the village was dominated by Wazir tribes.

It was not immediately clear if there were any high-value targets among those killed, but AFP sources said seven Al Qaeda operatives and a local Taliban commander were among the dead.

“The militants were using the facility for training,” an intelligence official told the news agency. “The strike successfully destroyed the camp,” he said.

A series of recent strikes against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan – all blamed on unmanned US drones – have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

Last weekend, two separate strikes in North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies killed at least 32 mainly Al Qaeda operatives.

Friday’s attack was the first since Barack Obama’s election as president of the US and the installation of Gen David Petraeus as head of the US Central Command. haji mujtaba/agencies (Daily Times, 8 November 2008)

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Pakistan first port of call for Gen Petraeus

* ISI chief Gen Pasha returns home satisfied with his exchanges at CIA and Pentagon

By Khalid Hasan (1 Nov 2008)

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is going to be the first port of all for Gen David Petraeus, who took over as the new United States strategic commander in both Iraq and Afghanistan on Friday.

Gen Petreus will be accompanied by Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia. Meanwhile, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the new head of ISI, who had a round of meetings at the CIA and the Pentagon has returned home, apparently satisfied with his exchanges. A member of his delegation said that while doubts continue to linger in some American minds regarding Pakistan's all out commitment to fighting extremist forces, Gen Pasha had done his best to set such doubts to rest.

According to a report in the Vancouver Sun, Gen Pasha was in Washington to meet his CIA counterpart Michael Hayden in an attempt to bury the mutual suspicion and mistrust that has undermined joint operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces holed up in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan. The newspaper wrote, "Petraeus assumes command on Friday amid high expectations he can turn around what many see as a failing strategy among North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces, including Canadians, to quell the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and impose enough security to allow accelerated economic development." The meetings between Pasha and Hayden were expected to be buoyed by reports from Pakistan's border region that recent attacks by missiles fired from American unmanned, radio-controlled Predator aircraft had killed at least four senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. The Americans have dramatically increased their use of the unmanned drones for attacks against Taliban in recent weeks after a raid from Afghanistan by US special forces on September 3 drew public outrage in Pakistan. More importantly, Washington was publicly rebuked by the head of the Pakistan army, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whose help NATO forces in Afghanistan need to eradicate Taliban's safe havens.

On October 16, the newspaper said, a Predator drone attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area killed Khalid Habib, reputedly appointed by Osama Bin Laden in January as chief of Al Qaeda in Pakistan and listed by the CIA as fourth in the organisation's hierarchy. Khalid Habib's mandate was to cement ties between Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the domestic insurgency in Pakistan that has grown in reaction to government assaults on militant strongholds in the tribal regions. On Sunday, there appeared to have been an even more successful Predator drone attack on another compound in South Waziristan in which three local militant leaders were killed. One set of reports said Sunday's attack on a compound near Wana killed 20 people including Eida Khan and Waheedullah, both with records of leading attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan. They were linked to Jalaluddin Haqqani, who remains alive despite several American attempts to kill him using drone-fired missiles, but several members of his family and some of his leading followers have died. The report said that army chief Gen Kayani had replaced four generals with prior knowledge of the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul. (Daily Times, 1 Nov 2008)

........


Saturday, November 01, 2008 (Daily Times)

Al Qaeda releases video of killing of five US ‘spies’

* ‘Spy’ says they were paid heavily to help US locate senior Al Qaeda leader

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: A video released by Al Qaeda’s media cell in North Waziristan has shown five alleged spies confessing their involvement in a US drone attack early this year in which a senior Qaeda leader was reported killed.

A tribal source who watched the video told Daily Times on Friday by phone from North Waziristan that the video had been released on October 26 and showed Pashto-speaking ‘spies’ narrating how they helped the US kill Abu Laith al Libi in a drone attack on January 29 near Mir Ali town. “The video just contained the confession statements of the five men -- an Afghan army soldier and four alleged Pakistani troops -- and shots of a place hit by an unmanned US spy plane,” the source said requesting anonymity. In the video, the men said they were tasked to locate Abu Laith and place what they called a ‘small (electronic) chip’ at a place where the wanted Al Qaeda leader lived. Security officials said the chip helped the drone locate the target.

Paid: “We were paid heavily for executing the mission. The place was attacked 11 minutes after the chip was left there,” said one of the alleged spies who along with the other four was killed. The source said he did not know when the ‘spies’ were captured and if they were telling the truth in the video. The ‘spies’ were reported killed, the source said, adding the video was released a day after the killings.

The four Pakistani nationals said in their statements that they served the army and paramilitary forces. In the video, one of them said: “I am surprised how they knew I helped the attack.” Security experts said the release of such a video by Al Qaeda and Taliban aimed at “spreading a wave of terror among the local people to keep them from helping the government” locate wanted terrorists in the Tribal Areas.

........



‘US drone attack’ claims nine lives

By Our Correspondent

MIRAMSHAH, Oct 9: Two missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a residential compound in Tapai area of North Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least nine people.

According to sources, three bodies had been taken out of debris.

Identity of the dead could not be ascertained, but it is learnt that some Arab nationals are among them. Local people said they saw columns of smoke rising from the area after the plane fired the missiles.

Officials said that the targeted place belonged to a tribesman, Sultan, in Pirano village, east of Miramshah. Meanwhile, tribesmen fired at suspected spy planes in different parts of North Waziristan on Thursday.

Witnesses said the tribesmen used AK-47 rifles and heavy machineguns and forced the planes to return to Afghanistan. (Dawn)

......


Two foreigners killed in missile attack

By Our Correspondent

WANA, Oct 16: A missile attack reportedly by a drone on a car and residential compounds in Sam area of South Waziristan killed two foreigners on Thursday.

According to local people, three missiles fired by the Predator drone at around noon struck the car and three houses in the predominantly Mehsud area. The houses of tribesmen Ghazi, Sady Khan and Bashir were damaged.

Witnesses said the unregistered car carrying Uzbek nationals appeared to be the main target of the attack.

According to sources, local militants took away the people injured in the attack.

They said the area was under the control of supporters of Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

It was the first such attack on an area of the Mehsud tribe.

AP adds: Intelligence officials said reports from informants suggested that a foreign militant had died in the attack.

They said Arabs had been living in one of the houses but the identities of the victims were not clear. They said foreign and local militants had frequented the house in a remote, forested area since its owner fled the region last year.

A local man, Javed Mehsud, said he saw several unmanned planes in the sky before and after the explosions in the village of Tapargai.

......


Another US drone strike kills 14 in N Waziristan 13 Sep 2008

* 14 wounded as missiles target house rented by Al Badar terrorist group in Miranshah
* Army confirms attack, says it has informed government

MIRANSHAH: A missile from a suspected United States drone killed 14 people when it hit a house in the outskirts of Miranshah in North Waziristan tribal area on Friday.

It was the fourth such strike in a week.

The pre-dawn strike destroyed the house and 14 people were killed, an official told Reuters, adding that another 14 people were wounded.

Al Badar terrorist group: The men were believed to be terrorists, locals said, adding that the house hit in the Tol Khel area had been rented by an Afghan terrorist organisation, Al Badar, and was being used as an office.

Army confirms: “We confirm a missile attack at around 5.30 in the morning (on Thursday) ... We have informed the government,” said military spokesman Major Murad Khan.

Khan gave no more details but security officials in the region said 14 people had been killed and about 12 wounded.

Residents said two missiles were fired at a former government school where terrorists and their families were living.

Gul Zaman Wazir, a local resident, told AP by phone that drone aircraft were heard before the attack.

“They kept on circling in the sky for about two hours,” Wazir said. “Then we heard a big bang.”

A large number of terrorists later sealed off the area, he said.

Al Badar, backed by former guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has previously conducted operations against Afghan and international forces based across the border in Afghanistan, residents and a security official said.

Hekmatyar was briefly prime minister of Afghanistan in the 1990s after the end of its Soviet occupation. He has backed the Taliban since the regime was removed from power following the US-led invasion of the country in 2001, after the September 11 attacks in the United States, and has demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Missile strikes targeting terrorists in Pakistan in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan. Pakistan does not have missile-equipped drones.

Thirty-eight people, including women and children, have been killed in the past week’s missile attacks.

Fears about Afghanistan’s future and frustration with Pakistani efforts to tackle the terrorists have led to more US missile attacks by drone aircraft in Pakistan.

About a dozen strikes this year have killed scores of terrorists and civilians. agencies (Daily Times, 13 Sep 2008)

......

New US attack mocks talk of sovereignty: Missile kills 12 in North Waziristan

By Our Correspondent

MIRAMSHAH, Sept 12: Twelve people were killed and 14 others injured when a US drone hit the building of a non-functional school in Toolkhel area of North Waziristan on Friday.

Sources said that the primary school was owned by local tribesman Shah Adam who had rented out the premises to the Al-Bader militant outfit.

A remnant of the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, the group had occasionally fought in Kashmir and turned the building into their liaison office.

This is the first time that the premises of a militant organisation has been attacked in the area, some three kilometres west of Miramshah.

Residents said the drone fired the missile at about 6:30am.

The building was completely destroyed and the militants took the injured people to some unspecified place.

The sources said the dead and the injured people were outsiders and a majority of them belonged to Punjab.

Like other tribal elders, the sources said, Shah Adam had provided the land to the authorities for setting up a school.

Later, he took over the building and turned it into his Hujra (guesthouse).

This was the fifth air attack by the US-led allied forces in North Waziristan over the past 10 days.

The attack on the building was carried out amid reports emanating from the US with threats given by top government and military officials about extending the Afghan war into Pakistan’s tribal areas and an angry statement from Army Chief Gen Pervez Ashfaq Kayani that no foreign country would be allowed to conduct operation inside the Pakistani territory.

On Friday morning, a military truck hit a landmine on a road near the Chashma Bridge, injuring two soldiers.

The truck was part of a convoy which was going from Miramshah to Bannu. On Thursday night, militants fired five rockets on the main fort of the Touchi Scouts in Miramshah.

.....

Drone attack belies Mullen’s assurance: Six killed in S. Waziristan village

Dawn Report

WANA / ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: Hours after the American military commander had assured Pakistan’s political and military leadership that the United States would respect the country’s sovereignty, missiles were fired from US drones on a house in South Waziristan, killing six people and injuring three others.

The unmanned aircraft which entered the tribal area from Afghanistan fired four missiles on the house in a village near Angoor Adda which is close to an allied forces’ base across the border. The same area had recently experienced an attack by US commandos.

Wednesday’s missile attack was 14th by US predators in the tribal agency.

A security official in Peshawar said: “We don’t know who were killed. But there are reports that some of them were low-profile foreigners… nobody of any significance.”

The sources said the drone fired missiles on the house in the Baghar Cheena village, about two kilometres east of Angoor Adda and 30 kilometres west of Wana.

The sources said that the house belonged to supporters of pro-government militant ‘commander’ Maulvi Nazir.

The missile attack also destroyed a container of arms and ammunition.

Agencies add: A Pakistani official said the attack on a container loaded with ammunition and explosives was the result of better US-Pakistani intelligence sharing and both countries had worked together on the attack.

The missile strike came at dusk. Three of the dead were Arabs, according to a Pakistani intelligence officer who declined to be identified.

Intelligence officials said the missiles had hit a compound used by Taliban militants and Hezb-i-Islami.

They said informants in the area had reported that six people were dead and three more wounded. Their identities were not immediately clear.

...

Monday, September 15, 2008 Daily Times

US drones bring fear and firepower to Qaeda war in Tribal Areas

* Residents says more drones hovering over areas round-the-clock

MIRANSHAH: Two air-to-ground missiles smashed into a house where a Taliban leader with close links to Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was thought to be hiding.

“There was a glittering flash of light and a prolonged roar,” said Hameedullah Khan, one of the first on the scene of Monday’s suspected United States drone strike in the town of Dande Darpa Khel, near the Afghan border. Two white drones circled the area for hours ahead of the attack that left 21 people dead, residents told AFP.

“We recovered 10 bodies. Some were mutilated, some charred. We could not identify whether the victims were locals or foreigners. But we could distinguish that children were among the dead,” Khan said.

Missile strikes targeting terrorists in Pakistan’s rugged Tribal Areas in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or the Central Intelligence Agency drones based in Afghanistan. Five strikes have been carried out in the last 12 days, targeting suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda bases.

The reputed target of Monday’s attack, veteran Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, was not among those killed, and the devastation left on the ground seems only to have strengthened the Taliban’s influence on local civilians.

“The Taliban turned up after about an hour,” said Khan, who helped in the rescue work at Dande Darpa Khel. “They ringed a building and erected a tent (to treat casualties) nearby,” the 35-year-old said. “Then they recovered more bodies and those wounded, who were sent to hospital.”

Washington says Pakistan’s mountainous tribal regions have become a safe haven for terrorists waging an insurgency against international troops based across the border. But the frequent missile attacks, for which the US has not claimed responsibility, are straining Pakistan’s relationship with its key ally. Pakistan’s army has also condemned what it sees as unilateral US action that violates the country’s sovereignty.

More surveillance: Residents in Dande Darpa Khel say that until recently, one drone would comb the region late at night or early in the morning. But now, two or three will fly together round-the-clock. “They keep on flying in our skies with full immunity and people are scared,” said Abdus Khan, a 22-year-old student, adding that the prospect of further attacks may lead people to flee the area.

“Pakistan’s army is fully-fledged in crushing Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists,” a senior military official told AFP. “The Americans must show patience and let us succeed in our strategy. When they launch unilateral strikes, it is only counter-productive,” he added.

Riffat Hussain, head of peace and conflict studies at Islamabad’s National Defence University, said the strikes were undermining the fight to combat terrorism in the tribal belt. “This is playing into the hands of the terrorists, especially when civilian collateral damage is much higher than the actual damage the Americans think they are causing to militant outfits or sanctuaries,” Hussain said. afp

......

Six killed in N. Waziristan missile attack

By Our Correspondent

MIRAMSHAH, Aug 31: Six people were killed and eight others injured in a mysterious missile attack on a residential compound in Ghundi village of North Waziristan on Sunday.

It was not clear if the missile had been fired from a US drone, but some local people reported seeing an unmanned aircraft flying over the area.

According to AFP news agency, most of the dead were foreign militants, including Arabs and Uzbeks.

“A plane was hovering over the area when a loud explosion occurred,” said a resident of the village.

He said that spy planes were regularly flying over the region which had caused fear among tribesmen.

Local people said that the missiles struck a portion of the residence of Nasir Dawar.

The injured were immediately taken to unknown locations. This was the fourth missile attack in the tribal region during August.

On Saturday, a house came under attack in South Waziristan and four people, including two Canadians of the Arab origin, were killed.

Meanwhile, militants killed a watchman of the local Intelligence Bureau office.

Sher Baz Khan, an Afghan national, had been kidnapped from outside the office in Miramshah on Friday and his body was found on the Razmak-Eisha road on Sunday.

......

Missile raid on S. Waziristan; six killed

Bureau Report

PESHAWAR, July 28: A missile apparently fired from a Predator drone killed at least six people on Monday in a compound in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

A security official said the strike might have killed a senior Al Qaeda trainer known for his expertise in chemicals. The official put the death toll at 12.

“Our report suggests that the missile strike might have killed Abu Khabab Al Misri. But it remains unconfirmed,” the official cautioned.

The 55-year-old Midhat Mursi As-Sayid Umar alias Abu Khabab was earlier reported to have been killed in a US missile strike in Bajaur’s Damadola area in Jan 2006. However, later reports showed that he was not among those killed.

He was a trainer at an Al Qaeda facility in Darunta, near Jalalabad, in the late 1990s.

A graduate in science from an Egyptian university, Abu Khabab was considered to be an expert in conventional explosives and some western media reports said he headed a project named Al Zabadi, or ‘curdled milk’, for making chemical and biological weapons.

The US had offered a $5 million reward on information leading to his capture.

A military spokesman declined to comment. “There is a problem at the local level. We have not received a detailed report. No one has been able to reach there and get details of the information. Therefore, I cannot really make a comment,” Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told Dawn.

A resident of Wana said two missiles struck a seminary and an adjoining compound in the Zyara Leetha area of Azam Warsak early in the morning, killing six people and wounding a woman and her two children.

He said tribal militants immediately encircled the scene of the attack and kept locals at bay. “We are not being allowed to go near the site.”

A local militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, said the strike had left seven people dead. Among them were the head of a seminary and students, he said.

Sources said the woman and two children wounded in the missile strike were the wife and children of Abu Khabab. They said others killed in the strike included Mohammad Hudaifa, Khalid Al Misri and two Saudi citizens. The information could not be verified by independent sources.


.....


US plane attacks Wana house with precision bombs: Foreign militants among nine killed

By Our Correspondent

WANA, March 16: At least nine people were killed and nine others wounded when a US plane hit a mud-compound in South Waziristan’s regional headquarters of Wana on Sunday afternoon, a security official said.

He said that the plane had hit the compound, barely one kilometre from the main regional market, with what appeared to be three precision bombs at around 3.10pm. “The adjoining houses largely escaped the damage,” the official said.

Among those killed in the attack included a man of Middle-Eastern origin, two men from the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan and six non-locals, an allusion to Pakistanis from the Punjab, the official said.

Local people said that the house had been rented out to ‘non-local’ people about a year ago and about 20 non-local people lived there.

Among the nine wounded in the bombing were two Arabic-speaking men and seven non-locals from Punjab.

None of those killed and wounded included the so-called high-value targets, local residents and security officials said.

US and Nato forces deployed in Afghanistan have carried out attacks on targets in the tribal region in the past, killing several top militant commanders. A large number of civilians have also been killed in such attacks.

About a month ago, a senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in an air strike in Mirali area of North Waziristan. A house was hit by a mortar shell near the Afghan border in the same region last week, killing four women and two children. Allied forces in Kabul claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sunday’s attack targeted the house of Mohammad Yousuf who had rented it out to Arabs about a year ago. The house was completely destroyed.

Initial reports said that three missiles fired from an aircraft had destroyed the house. These reports also said that 18 people had been killed and 14 injured.

Most of the victims were non-locals and belonged to Arab countries, an official said, adding that the house was being used as a training camp for militants. There were no women or children in the house.

Witnesses said that militants cordoned off the area immediately after the attack. Eight charred bodies were taken out of the rubble of the house.

“Parts of bodies were stuffed into bags and buried in a nearby graveyard by local militants,” a tribesman said.

One of the injured told a local doctor at the hospital that some 42 people had been in the house at the time of the attack.

Our Tank Correspondent adds: A spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud on Sunday warned of fresh attacks if the government did not stop military operation in the region.Maulvi Umar described suicide attacks in Lahore and Islamabad as a reaction to the ongoing army operation in the area and said that security forces should halt the operation.

AGENCIES ADD: Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said there were reports of blasts and some casualties in the area and the military was checking.

The spokesman said that Pakistani forces had not carried out any operation in the area and he did not know who had carried out the strike or what type of weapon was used.

Maj Chris Belcher, a US military spokesman in Afghanistan, said coalition forces conducted an operation on Sunday in Paktika province, which lies just across the border from South Waziristan. He said he had no information about the Pakistan strike and that he doubted the two incidents were related.

A local tribesman in the area said he saw drones overhead just before the attack.

Rahim Khan said that the home of local militant leader and Taliban sympathiser Noorullah had been destroyed.

He said the house, a huge, fortress-like compound, was known as a hub for foreign militants.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials in the area, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said another house nearby was also destroyed. Arab and Uzbek militants had been staying in the house, they said.

...

BBC Urdu dot com Reports:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/11/081115_waziristan_attacks_np.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/11/081114_drone_attack.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/11/081108_missile_update_fz.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081031_waziristan_missile.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/11/081107_waziristan_drone.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081011_drone_attack_zs.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081009_drone_attack_as.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081004_drone_toll_rise_zs.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081003_missile_strike_as.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/09/080912_us_attack.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/09/080910_mike_mullen_as.shtml

SOME COMMENTS:


makhalil Says:
November 15th, 2008

US drones attacked on Taliban Hide outs in side Pakistani area 36 time in total.

While 106 sucide attacks inside Pakistan since 2006 [almost all claimed by tehreek-e-taliban} and they killed more than 900 people in Total,all Pakistani, all innocents.

so we need to be clear who is our worst enemy.



why is it our war.

because

1-our army men/civilians are been slaughtered like animals.
2-our motherland is been captured.
3-our flag is been burnt down and replaced by theirs flag.
4-our constitution is violated.
5-our innocent civilians are indiscriminately killed just for being Pakistanis.
6-our school are blown up.
7-our country is been defamed.
8-our way of life is been challenged.
9-our most important leader is been killed.
10-our economy has been ruined.

...
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