Title: Return of the Talibans
Description: updates, news
Description: updates, news
saver111 - May 31, 2006 09:26 AM (GMT)
Police: Taliban 'take control' of Afghan district
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Taliban rebels overran a district in southern Afghanistan, driving out government forces and remaining in control overnight, police said Wednesday.
The insurgents stormed Chora district of restive Uruzgan province late Tuesday and took over the police command and district headquarters after a battle lasting several hours, provincial police chief Haji Rozi Khan told AFP.
"They had control over the headquarters overnight but they left in the morning," Khan said. "The center of the district is no man's land now, we are preparing to go back as soon as we get reinforcements," he said.
Afghanistan has recently seen a spike in violence as fighters of the extremist Taliban movement forced from government in late 2001 have stepped up their attacks, mainly in the south and southeast. AFP
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=40403
Making their presence felt.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Taliban rebels overran a district in southern Afghanistan, driving out government forces and remaining in control overnight, police said Wednesday.
The insurgents stormed Chora district of restive Uruzgan province late Tuesday and took over the police command and district headquarters after a battle lasting several hours, provincial police chief Haji Rozi Khan told AFP.
"They had control over the headquarters overnight but they left in the morning," Khan said. "The center of the district is no man's land now, we are preparing to go back as soon as we get reinforcements," he said.
Afghanistan has recently seen a spike in violence as fighters of the extremist Taliban movement forced from government in late 2001 have stepped up their attacks, mainly in the south and southeast. AFP
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=40403
Making their presence felt.
el_commandante - May 31, 2006 12:04 PM (GMT)
What is really the goal of the islamist?
The establishment of the islamic caliphate, to unite all muslim countries into a single superpower state. Then to encourage non muslim states to islam, pressure them, then invade ,and force them to embrace islam. Because the Koran said "there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet"
Pakistan already has a nuclear bomb and Iran will have the bomb soon.
Imagine this scenario a nuclear armed Pakistan and Iran demand that the Philippines give independence to muslims in Mindanao including Palawan or else! :fire:
Thank God the imperialist US is fighting them, GOD bless you trigger happy George Bush :thumb:
The establishment of the islamic caliphate, to unite all muslim countries into a single superpower state. Then to encourage non muslim states to islam, pressure them, then invade ,and force them to embrace islam. Because the Koran said "there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet"
Pakistan already has a nuclear bomb and Iran will have the bomb soon.
Imagine this scenario a nuclear armed Pakistan and Iran demand that the Philippines give independence to muslims in Mindanao including Palawan or else! :fire:
Thank God the imperialist US is fighting them, GOD bless you trigger happy George Bush :thumb:
saver111 - July 18, 2006 06:38 AM (GMT)
Taliban seize 2 towns, police flee
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban militants have seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.
The Taliban operate freely in large areas of southern Afghanistan and police presence there often is virtually nonexistent, but insurgents only were known to have completely seized one town since their hard-line regime was toppled by U.S. forces in 2001.
They were quickly driven out of that town, Chora, in Uruzgan province.
The attacks came with thousands of U.S.-led troops involved in an offensive against Taliban holdouts and allied extremists in remote southern and eastern provinces to curb the deadliest upsurge in violence since the hard-line militia was ousted in late 2001.
On Monday, large numbers of militants chased out police after a brief clash in the town of Naway-i-Barakzayi, in Helmand province near the Pakistan border, district police chief Mullah Sharufuddin said.
Scores of Taliban forces overran police holed up Sunday in a compound in the nearby Helmand town of Garmser. The security forces and a handful of government officials fled, a local government official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media, said Taliban forces were now "moving freely" around the Garmser and the surrounding district.
"We have heard reports of two districts in southern Helmand being under control of the Taliban, and we are in contact with lots of people to build an accurate picture," said another coalition spokesman, Maj. Scott Lundy.
"The Taliban are a credible threat, but the coalition is more than a match for them when and wherever we encounter them," he said.
British military spokesman Capt. Drew Gibson confirmed enemy "activity" in both areas but declined to elaborate. More than 3,000 British soldiers are deploying to Helmand to take over security control from U.S. forces later this month.
Taliban forces killed a coalition soldier and wounded 11 others in a fierce battle Monday in Tirin Kot, capital of Helmand's neighboring Uruzgan province, a U.S. statement said. The nationalities of the soldiers were not released.
More than 800 people, mostly militants, have been killed since May, according to an Associated Press tally of coalition and Afghan figures.
U.S.-led troops entering southern insurgent hotbeds for the first time are facing intense resistance.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/1...n.ap/index.html
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Taliban militants have seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.
The Taliban operate freely in large areas of southern Afghanistan and police presence there often is virtually nonexistent, but insurgents only were known to have completely seized one town since their hard-line regime was toppled by U.S. forces in 2001.
They were quickly driven out of that town, Chora, in Uruzgan province.
The attacks came with thousands of U.S.-led troops involved in an offensive against Taliban holdouts and allied extremists in remote southern and eastern provinces to curb the deadliest upsurge in violence since the hard-line militia was ousted in late 2001.
On Monday, large numbers of militants chased out police after a brief clash in the town of Naway-i-Barakzayi, in Helmand province near the Pakistan border, district police chief Mullah Sharufuddin said.
Scores of Taliban forces overran police holed up Sunday in a compound in the nearby Helmand town of Garmser. The security forces and a handful of government officials fled, a local government official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media, said Taliban forces were now "moving freely" around the Garmser and the surrounding district.
"We have heard reports of two districts in southern Helmand being under control of the Taliban, and we are in contact with lots of people to build an accurate picture," said another coalition spokesman, Maj. Scott Lundy.
"The Taliban are a credible threat, but the coalition is more than a match for them when and wherever we encounter them," he said.
British military spokesman Capt. Drew Gibson confirmed enemy "activity" in both areas but declined to elaborate. More than 3,000 British soldiers are deploying to Helmand to take over security control from U.S. forces later this month.
Taliban forces killed a coalition soldier and wounded 11 others in a fierce battle Monday in Tirin Kot, capital of Helmand's neighboring Uruzgan province, a U.S. statement said. The nationalities of the soldiers were not released.
More than 800 people, mostly militants, have been killed since May, according to an Associated Press tally of coalition and Afghan figures.
U.S.-led troops entering southern insurgent hotbeds for the first time are facing intense resistance.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/1...n.ap/index.html
saver111 - July 20, 2007 08:08 AM (GMT)
Taliban claim abduction of South Koreans, Germans
KABUL (AFP) - The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnap of 18 South Korean Christians and two German nationals, and said they would only free the Germans if Berlin withdraws troops from Afghanistan.
"The Taliban have kidnapped the South Korean nationals. There are 18 South Koreans -- three men and 15 women," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.
"They are with the Taliban now and they are safe and sound. They are under investigation and once the investigation is over, the Taliban leading council will make a final decision about their fate," he said.
The South Koreans, who were abducted Thursday from the bus they were travelling in southern Afghanistan, belong to a church group engaged in "evangelistic" and aid activity in one of Afghanistan's most insurgency-hit regions. Officials in Seoul said they included some women.
"They were travelling in a bus. They were kidnapped by terrorists yesterday (Thursday)," Ghazni province governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP.
The governor expressed anger at the presence in his part of the country of such a large number of foreign nationals, who are often prime targets for Taliban militants and also criminals.
"They must have thought they are in Korea, not in war-torn Afghanistan. They did not contact us, police or the security forces for protection while travelling in this region," he said.
The Germans were kidnapped a day earlier as they drove on the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar in the insurgency-hit south.
Ahmadi said the Taliban would only free them if German troops pulled out of Afghanistan and all the Taliban prisoners in Afghan prisons were released.
Germany has some 3,000 troops stationed in the north of the country as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and is being pressed to send more.
Islamist militants in March issued Berlin with an ultimatum to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
In Seoul, Joseph Park, mission director of the Christian Council of Korea, had earlier said he feared the ultra-Islamic Taliban movement was behind the abduction of the Koreans.
"They are young Korean Christians who were engaged in short-term evangelistic activity and service for children in Kandahar. I am afraid they were captured by Taliban forces," Park said.
The 20-strong group, in their 20s and early 30s, belongs to the Saem-mul Community Church in Bundang on the outskirts of Seoul, said Oh Soon-In, a senior church administrator.
"The group left here on July 13, led by Rev. Bae Hyong-Kyu, and was supposed to return home on Monday next week," Oh said.
"We are in an emergency conference. We are quite concerned about their safety and whereabouts. We heard that they disappeared while travelling from Kabul to Kandahar."
Police confirmed they were not warned that Koreans were in the troubled area.
"They did not inform police about their presence in the area. We have found their empty bus and police have launched a major search operation in the area," provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai told AFP.
In February the Korean foreign ministry urged its citizens in Afghanistan to take extreme caution, citing an intelligence report that Taliban insurgents may try to kidnap South Korean travellers.
Around 1,200 South Korean Christians including hundreds of children arrived in devoutly Islamic Afghanistan last summer. The Kabul government ordered them out amid fears for their safety.
South Korea has the second largest number of Christians in East Asia after the Philippines.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=85273
Hmmm... let's see how these two countries would react.
KABUL (AFP) - The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnap of 18 South Korean Christians and two German nationals, and said they would only free the Germans if Berlin withdraws troops from Afghanistan.
"The Taliban have kidnapped the South Korean nationals. There are 18 South Koreans -- three men and 15 women," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.
"They are with the Taliban now and they are safe and sound. They are under investigation and once the investigation is over, the Taliban leading council will make a final decision about their fate," he said.
The South Koreans, who were abducted Thursday from the bus they were travelling in southern Afghanistan, belong to a church group engaged in "evangelistic" and aid activity in one of Afghanistan's most insurgency-hit regions. Officials in Seoul said they included some women.
"They were travelling in a bus. They were kidnapped by terrorists yesterday (Thursday)," Ghazni province governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP.
The governor expressed anger at the presence in his part of the country of such a large number of foreign nationals, who are often prime targets for Taliban militants and also criminals.
"They must have thought they are in Korea, not in war-torn Afghanistan. They did not contact us, police or the security forces for protection while travelling in this region," he said.
The Germans were kidnapped a day earlier as they drove on the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar in the insurgency-hit south.
Ahmadi said the Taliban would only free them if German troops pulled out of Afghanistan and all the Taliban prisoners in Afghan prisons were released.
Germany has some 3,000 troops stationed in the north of the country as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and is being pressed to send more.
Islamist militants in March issued Berlin with an ultimatum to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
In Seoul, Joseph Park, mission director of the Christian Council of Korea, had earlier said he feared the ultra-Islamic Taliban movement was behind the abduction of the Koreans.
"They are young Korean Christians who were engaged in short-term evangelistic activity and service for children in Kandahar. I am afraid they were captured by Taliban forces," Park said.
The 20-strong group, in their 20s and early 30s, belongs to the Saem-mul Community Church in Bundang on the outskirts of Seoul, said Oh Soon-In, a senior church administrator.
"The group left here on July 13, led by Rev. Bae Hyong-Kyu, and was supposed to return home on Monday next week," Oh said.
"We are in an emergency conference. We are quite concerned about their safety and whereabouts. We heard that they disappeared while travelling from Kabul to Kandahar."
Police confirmed they were not warned that Koreans were in the troubled area.
"They did not inform police about their presence in the area. We have found their empty bus and police have launched a major search operation in the area," provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai told AFP.
In February the Korean foreign ministry urged its citizens in Afghanistan to take extreme caution, citing an intelligence report that Taliban insurgents may try to kidnap South Korean travellers.
Around 1,200 South Korean Christians including hundreds of children arrived in devoutly Islamic Afghanistan last summer. The Kabul government ordered them out amid fears for their safety.
South Korea has the second largest number of Christians in East Asia after the Philippines.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=85273
Hmmm... let's see how these two countries would react.
saver111 - September 29, 2008 09:15 AM (GMT)
Afghan woman police director gunned down
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a high-ranking woman police official in Afghanistan's largest southern city Sunday, while a suicide bomber killed three police and three civilians in the same region.
Malalai Kakar was the head of the department of crimes against women in Kandahar city.
Malalai Kakar was traveling from her home in Kandahar city to the office Sunday when she was shot, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Her son, 18, was wounded in the attack, he said.
Kakar, 41, was the head of the department of crimes against women in Kandahar city, Ayubi said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Militants frequently attack projects, schools and businesses run by women. The hard-line Taliban regime, which was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, did not allow women outside the home without a male escort.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the assassination, as did the European Union, which said it was "appalled by the brutal targeting" of Kakar.
"Any murder of a police officer is to be condemned, but the killing of a female officer whose service was not only to her country, but to Afghan women, to whom Ms. Kakar served as an example, is particularly abhorrent," the EU said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Kandahar province, a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a border police convoy in Spin Boldak district, killing three policemen and three civilians, said the regional border police chief, Abdul Razzaq.
The blast wounded 17 others -- all but of them civilians, Razzaq said.
Taliban militants use suicide attacks in their campaign against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. The majority of the victims in such bombings are civilians.
In other violence, an Afghan police official said U.S.-led coalition forces killed three civilians in an operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan. That claim was disputed by the coalition, which said its troops killed two al-Qaida militants.
Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief in the eastern province of Kunar, said airstrikes hit a compound in the province's Asmar district, killing three civilians.
The U.S.-led coalition said its troops targeted an al-Qaida cell responsible for a number of bomb attacks in Kunar province.
The coalition said two militants were killed after a firefight in one of the compounds. It said no civilians were killed. Capt. Scott Miller, a U.S. spokesman, said artillery strikes were used in the fight but no airstrikes.
It was impossible to independently verify either report, due to the remoteness of the area.
Civilian deaths are a highly sensitive topic in Afghanistan. Karzai has long pleaded with international troops to avoid civilian deaths in its operations.
The Afghan government and U.N. say that an August 22 U.S. operation killed some 90 civilians in the western province of Herat, a strike that strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
An original U.S. investigation found that up to 35 militants and seven civilians were killed in that strike. However, a new investigation was opened -- and is now under way -- after video images emerged appearing to show many more dead than the U.S. had acknowledged.
The coalition said separately that it killed six militants and detained eight in two operations on Saturday.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/...n.ap/index.html
I have watched a documentary a few weeks ago wherein a high ranking female Muslim police officer was featured. I don't know if that was her since I can't recall whether it was Afghanistan or Iraq. The moment I saw it, I knew she could be a target of the Taliban.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a high-ranking woman police official in Afghanistan's largest southern city Sunday, while a suicide bomber killed three police and three civilians in the same region.
Malalai Kakar was the head of the department of crimes against women in Kandahar city.
Malalai Kakar was traveling from her home in Kandahar city to the office Sunday when she was shot, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Her son, 18, was wounded in the attack, he said.
Kakar, 41, was the head of the department of crimes against women in Kandahar city, Ayubi said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Militants frequently attack projects, schools and businesses run by women. The hard-line Taliban regime, which was ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, did not allow women outside the home without a male escort.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the assassination, as did the European Union, which said it was "appalled by the brutal targeting" of Kakar.
"Any murder of a police officer is to be condemned, but the killing of a female officer whose service was not only to her country, but to Afghan women, to whom Ms. Kakar served as an example, is particularly abhorrent," the EU said in a statement.
Elsewhere in Kandahar province, a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a border police convoy in Spin Boldak district, killing three policemen and three civilians, said the regional border police chief, Abdul Razzaq.
The blast wounded 17 others -- all but of them civilians, Razzaq said.
Taliban militants use suicide attacks in their campaign against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. The majority of the victims in such bombings are civilians.
In other violence, an Afghan police official said U.S.-led coalition forces killed three civilians in an operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan. That claim was disputed by the coalition, which said its troops killed two al-Qaida militants.
Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief in the eastern province of Kunar, said airstrikes hit a compound in the province's Asmar district, killing three civilians.
The U.S.-led coalition said its troops targeted an al-Qaida cell responsible for a number of bomb attacks in Kunar province.
The coalition said two militants were killed after a firefight in one of the compounds. It said no civilians were killed. Capt. Scott Miller, a U.S. spokesman, said artillery strikes were used in the fight but no airstrikes.
It was impossible to independently verify either report, due to the remoteness of the area.
Civilian deaths are a highly sensitive topic in Afghanistan. Karzai has long pleaded with international troops to avoid civilian deaths in its operations.
The Afghan government and U.N. say that an August 22 U.S. operation killed some 90 civilians in the western province of Herat, a strike that strained U.S.-Afghan relations.
An original U.S. investigation found that up to 35 militants and seven civilians were killed in that strike. However, a new investigation was opened -- and is now under way -- after video images emerged appearing to show many more dead than the U.S. had acknowledged.
The coalition said separately that it killed six militants and detained eight in two operations on Saturday.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/...n.ap/index.html
I have watched a documentary a few weeks ago wherein a high ranking female Muslim police officer was featured. I don't know if that was her since I can't recall whether it was Afghanistan or Iraq. The moment I saw it, I knew she could be a target of the Taliban.
panzerkampfwagen - September 30, 2008 02:06 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (el_commandante @ May 31 2006, 08:04 PM) |
| What is really the goal of the islamist? The establishment of the islamic caliphate, to unite all muslim countries into a single superpower state. Then to encourage non muslim states to islam, pressure them, then invade ,and force them to embrace islam. Because the Koran said "there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet" Pakistan already has a nuclear bomb and Iran will have the bomb soon. Imagine this scenario a nuclear armed Pakistan and Iran demand that the Philippines give independence to muslims in Mindanao including Palawan or else! :fire: Thank God the imperialist US is fighting them, GOD bless you trigger happy George Bush :thumb: |
Well, I can see that their goal is World domination. They want Islam to dominate every inch of soil in this world. What they are doing now is their own version of Crusade. To crush all Jews and Christians, communist, imperialist, fascist and democracy and spread Islam. That is their way of thinking. Killing and bombings is the will of Allah, according to them. :headbang:
panzerkampfwagen - October 6, 2008 09:43 PM (GMT)
Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace
By Nic Robertson
CNN Senior International Correspondent
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.
The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source.
The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.
They also mark a sidestepping of key "war on terror" ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan.
According to the source, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- high on the U.S. military's most-wanted list -- was not present, but his representatives were keen to stress the reclusive cleric is no longer allied to al Qaeda.
Details of the Taliban leader's split with al Qaeda have never been made public before, but the new claims confirm what another source with an intimate knowledge of the militia and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past.
The current round of talks, said to have been taken two years of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations to come to fruition, is anticipated to be the first step in a long process to secure a negotiated end to the conflict.
But U.S.- and Europe-friendly Saudi Arabia's involvement has been propelled by a mounting death toll among coalition troops amid a worsening violence that has also claimed many civilian casualties.
A Saudi source familiar with the talks confirmed that they happened and said the Saudis take seriously their role in facilitating discussions between parties to the conflict.
A second round of talks is scheduled to take place in two months, the Saudi source said.
The Afghan government believes the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, and the Taliban believe that they can't win a war against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Saudi source said.
The involvement of the Saudis is also seen as an expression of fear that Iran could take advantage of U.S. failings in Afghanistan, as it is seen to be doing in Iraq.
Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. Learn more about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia »
The Afghan sources wish to remain anonymous due to their political roles.
Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace.
Saudi sources say perceived Iranian expansionism is one of Saudi Arabia's biggest concerns.
The talks in Mecca took place between September 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others.
King Abdullah broke fast during the Eid al-Fitr holiday with the 17-member Afghan delegation -- an act intended to show his commitment to ending the conflict. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Learn more about Ramadan »
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban leadership during its rule over Afghanistan in the 1990s, but that relationship was severed over Mullah Omar's refusal to hand over bin Laden.
During the talks, described as an ice breaker, all parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan's conflict is through dialogue, not fighting.
Further talks are expected in Saudi Arabia involving this core group and others.[SIZE=7][SIZE=14]
By Nic Robertson
CNN Senior International Correspondent
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.
The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source.
The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.
They also mark a sidestepping of key "war on terror" ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan.
According to the source, fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar -- high on the U.S. military's most-wanted list -- was not present, but his representatives were keen to stress the reclusive cleric is no longer allied to al Qaeda.
Details of the Taliban leader's split with al Qaeda have never been made public before, but the new claims confirm what another source with an intimate knowledge of the militia and Mullah Omar has told CNN in the past.
The current round of talks, said to have been taken two years of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations to come to fruition, is anticipated to be the first step in a long process to secure a negotiated end to the conflict.
But U.S.- and Europe-friendly Saudi Arabia's involvement has been propelled by a mounting death toll among coalition troops amid a worsening violence that has also claimed many civilian casualties.
A Saudi source familiar with the talks confirmed that they happened and said the Saudis take seriously their role in facilitating discussions between parties to the conflict.
A second round of talks is scheduled to take place in two months, the Saudi source said.
The Afghan government believes the Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, and the Taliban believe that they can't win a war against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, the Saudi source said.
The involvement of the Saudis is also seen as an expression of fear that Iran could take advantage of U.S. failings in Afghanistan, as it is seen to be doing in Iraq.
Several Afghan sources familiar with Iranian activities in Afghanistan have said Iranian officials and diplomats who are investing in business and building education facilities are lobbying politicians in Kabul. Learn more about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia »
The Afghan sources wish to remain anonymous due to their political roles.
Coalition commanders regularly accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, and Western diplomats privately suggest that Iran is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan, making it harder to bring peace.
Saudi sources say perceived Iranian expansionism is one of Saudi Arabia's biggest concerns.
The talks in Mecca took place between September 24 and 27 and involved 11 Taliban delegates, two Afghan government officials, a representative of former mujahadeen commander and U.S. foe Gulbadin Hekmatyar, and three others.
King Abdullah broke fast during the Eid al-Fitr holiday with the 17-member Afghan delegation -- an act intended to show his commitment to ending the conflict. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Learn more about Ramadan »
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban leadership during its rule over Afghanistan in the 1990s, but that relationship was severed over Mullah Omar's refusal to hand over bin Laden.
During the talks, described as an ice breaker, all parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan's conflict is through dialogue, not fighting.
Further talks are expected in Saudi Arabia involving this core group and others.[SIZE=7][SIZE=14]
MSantor - October 26, 2008 05:01 PM (GMT)
Ouch. Hopefully thsoe Talibaners don' t figure out how to use it and blow themselves up in the process.
| QUOTE |
FRANCE PLAYS DOWN TALIBAN CAPTURE OF ANTI-TANK MISSILES Agence France-Presse via the Toqueville Connection, 24 Oct 08 Article link France played down Friday the capture by Taliban forces of two French anti-tank missiles seized after the insurgents launched a major attack on hundreds of its troops in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Herve Morin said Western forces in Afghanistan sometimes had to abandon weapons in the field and that the main concern had been to get the troops out of last Saturday's ambush alive. "It was an ambush in a narrow valley, with a lot of Taliban," said Morin as he visited an army unit in the eastern town of Annecy that was about to send some of its soldiers to Afghanistan. "The essential thing is that everyone is alive," he said, adding that the Milan anti-tank missiles abandoned would be difficult to use for anyone without the proper training. Fourteen Taliban were killed in the clash, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. The ambush took place in the Alasai valley north of the capital Kabul, near where 10 French soldiers were killed in another Taliban ambush in mid-August. But the French army waited until Thursday to publicly announce the incident. It said that around 300 French troops were attacked by about 100 Taliban and had to retreat after fierce fighting. Air cover was called in to help them get out of the ambush, said Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Louisfert, a French army spokesman in Afghanistan. He said a missile launcher was also abandoned along with the two Milan portable medium-range guided missiles. About 70,000 international troops -- 40,000 of them under NATO command -- are helping Afghans fight the Taliban who were ousted from Kabul in a US-led invasion launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks. France has around 2,600 troops there. |
didu - October 27, 2008 01:06 PM (GMT)
there they go again, westerners underestimating the ability of insurgents to learn how to use modern weapons.
until a french or canadian armored vehicle gets blown one of these days. :armyroleyes:
until a french or canadian armored vehicle gets blown one of these days. :armyroleyes:
MSantor - November 12, 2008 07:19 AM (GMT)
Time for ISAF troops to ready their LAWs and MILANs for possible AT use?
Big whoop- the Taliban have Humvees. :roll: That's why the US military has Cobras and Apaches to hunt down such vehicles and take them out with Hellfires.
A British Warrior or a Canadian LAVIII can easily make mincemeat of those vehicles if the Taliban dares to use them as VBIEDs.
Big whoop- the Taliban have Humvees. :roll: That's why the US military has Cobras and Apaches to hunt down such vehicles and take them out with Hellfires.
A British Warrior or a Canadian LAVIII can easily make mincemeat of those vehicles if the Taliban dares to use them as VBIEDs.
| QUOTE |
US embarrassed as Taliban steal Humvees Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | November 12, 2008 Article from: The Australian Article Link TALIBAN militants were driving around in captured US army Humvee armoured vehicles in Pakistan's tribal region close to the historic Khyber Pass last night after hijacking more than a dozen supply trucks travelling along the vital land route that supplies coalition forces in Afghanistan. The capture of the Humvees - these days the symbol of US intervention in Iraq and elsewhere - is a serious embarrassment to US commanders of the coalition forces. Pakistani reporters in the area said the militants unloaded the Humvees from shipping containers on the backs of the trucks and drove off in them, after decorating them with flags and banners of the banned umbrella organisation Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is led by Baitullah Mehsud. Mehsud is closely allied to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The reporters said the hijackings had taken place "in clear view of (Pakistani) paramilitary personnel" deployed at the nearby Jamrud Fort, who "did not take any action". "All this happened on the international highway (linking Pakistan with Afghanistan) and you can imagine the implications this can have for us," an official told Pakistan newspaper Dawn. Pakistan army helicopter gunships were later sent to the area, but by then the trucks had been released by the militants, who had decamped with the Humvees as well as bags of wheat. The hijacking of the supply trucks - and the embarrassment of seeing the militants driving around the area in the Humvees - came amid fast-mounting concern about the security of thevital land route through Pakistan that serves the 35,000-strong coalition force fighting in Afghanistan. The supply trucks were seized by the militants along a 35km stretch of the narrow, switchback road through the Khyber Pass, the main gateway for essential supplies shipped under cover to the Pakistani port city of Karachi. More than 350 trucks travel through the perilous pass each day, carrying supplies to Afghanistan, many of them with consignments destined for the coalition forces. More than 24 transport trucks and oil tankers have reportedly been attacked in the area in the past month as militants have stepped up their assaults on the road convoys, causing serious concern to NATO commanders. Last weekend, two coalition warplanes, backed by ground artillery from gun emplacements across the border in Afghanistan, crossed into Pakistani territory to attack militants seen in the Tirah valley, close to the Khyber Pass, in what appeared to be a pre-emptive strike against possible attacks on the vital road link. Pakistani forces have also launched major offensives around the North West Frontier Province's capital, Peshawar, in an attempt to drive back militants threatening the road. The militants have responded by launching rocket attacks on Peshawar airport, which is regularly used by civilian aircraft. More on link |
saver111 - November 18, 2008 12:44 PM (GMT)
Taliban siege of Pakistan elders leaves 7 dead
By HABIB KHAN, Associated Press Writer Habib Khan, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago
KHAR, Pakistan – Taliban militants attacked Pakistani tribal leaders near the Afghan border, triggering a gunbattle and an explosion that killed seven people, an official said Tuesday.
The clash happened late Monday in Bajur, a lawless region in Pakistan's northwest where troops and tribal militias have been battling Taliban guerrillas for more than three months.
Israr Khan, a government representative in the semi-autonomous region, said Taliban gunmen surrounded a group of elders from the Mamund tribe in a fortress-like compound in the village of Inayat Kili.
An hourslong gunbattle between the two sides killed a commander of the Taliban fighters as well as two guards in the compound, Khan said. Four elders also died when an explosion hit the compound, he said. It was unclear what caused the blast.
Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar confirmed the death of a militant commander in Monday's clash.
Pakistani and U.S. officials have applauded efforts by some tribal leaders to establish militias to fight Taliban and al-Qaida militants blamed for attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as targets in Pakistan.
The militias' emergence in Bajur and other parts of Pakistan's northwest has drawn comparisons with so-called Awakening Councils that helped turned the tide against al-Qaida in Iraq.
However, some observers warn that arming more groups in the impoverished border region will only sustain the anarchy in which violent extremism has flourished.
Militants have repeatedly attacked pro-government elders in shooting and suicide bomb attacks in recent months, killing scores.
He claimed that the Taliban captured seven elders and said their fate will be decided by Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, the Taliban leader in Bajur.
Khan said three people kidnapped by the insurgents returned to their homes on Tuesday but that several Mamund elders were missing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_...8aIiyIwzVQUewgF
By HABIB KHAN, Associated Press Writer Habib Khan, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago
KHAR, Pakistan – Taliban militants attacked Pakistani tribal leaders near the Afghan border, triggering a gunbattle and an explosion that killed seven people, an official said Tuesday.
The clash happened late Monday in Bajur, a lawless region in Pakistan's northwest where troops and tribal militias have been battling Taliban guerrillas for more than three months.
Israr Khan, a government representative in the semi-autonomous region, said Taliban gunmen surrounded a group of elders from the Mamund tribe in a fortress-like compound in the village of Inayat Kili.
An hourslong gunbattle between the two sides killed a commander of the Taliban fighters as well as two guards in the compound, Khan said. Four elders also died when an explosion hit the compound, he said. It was unclear what caused the blast.
Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar confirmed the death of a militant commander in Monday's clash.
Pakistani and U.S. officials have applauded efforts by some tribal leaders to establish militias to fight Taliban and al-Qaida militants blamed for attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as targets in Pakistan.
The militias' emergence in Bajur and other parts of Pakistan's northwest has drawn comparisons with so-called Awakening Councils that helped turned the tide against al-Qaida in Iraq.
However, some observers warn that arming more groups in the impoverished border region will only sustain the anarchy in which violent extremism has flourished.
Militants have repeatedly attacked pro-government elders in shooting and suicide bomb attacks in recent months, killing scores.
He claimed that the Taliban captured seven elders and said their fate will be decided by Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, the Taliban leader in Bajur.
Khan said three people kidnapped by the insurgents returned to their homes on Tuesday but that several Mamund elders were missing.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_...8aIiyIwzVQUewgF
saver111 - December 8, 2008 01:25 PM (GMT)
Taliban destroy 100 trucks in biggest raid on Nato supplies bound for Afghanistan
• Islamist leader warns of increase in armed attacks
• $10bn given to Pakistan to fight war on terror 'wasted'
Pakistani employees inspect the damage at one of the Nato supply depots in Peshawar after the militants’ attack left more than 100 burned-out vehicles. Photograph: Tariq Mahmood/AFP/Getty Images
Gunmen mounted the biggest attack yet on Nato supplies going to Afghanistan yesterday, torching more than 100 trucks carrying equipment at a depot in north-west Pakistan, the main route for supplies to troops in land-locked Afghanistan.
Security guards at two depots in Peshawar were outnumbered by more than 200 militants at around 3am. About 70 Humvees, which were loaded on some of the trucks, were destroyed. Most of the vehicles were reduced to charred hulks of metal. "They fired rockets, hurled hand grenades and then set ablaze 96 trucks," said a senior police officer in Peshawar, Azeem Khan.
The attack came as Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar urged western forces to leave Afghanistan before thousands of their troops were killed in the Islamist group's renewed insurgency.
Omar, believed to be hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in an email statement: "I would like to remind the illegal invaders who have invaded our defenceless and oppressed people that it is a golden opportunity for you at present to hammer out an exit strategy for your forces. The current armed clashes which now number into tens will spiral up to hundreds of armed clashes. Your current casualties of hundreds will jack up into the thousands."
The Taliban has a permanent presence in 72% of the territory of Afghanistan, up from 54% last year, and is expanding its control beyond the rural south of the country, the International Council on Security and Development, formerly the Senlis Council, says in a report today.
The independent thinktank and research organisation says three of the four main routes leading out of Kabul, the capital, are threatened by the Taliban.
Most of the additional American troops arriving in Afghanistan early next year will be deployed near Kabul, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing American military commanders.
The Pakistani Taliban have begun to focus increasingly on choking off the supply path through Pakistan, which is used to take over 70% of military equipment, food, fuel and other vital provisions to western soldiers across the border.
Supplies are trucked hundreds of miles from the port at Karachi across Pakistan to Peshawar, and then onward to Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.
A security guard at one of the depots said there had been 13 of them trying to hold out against the militants yesterday; they had been forced to give up after about half an hour. One security guard was killed in the shoot-out.
Another guard, Mohammad Rafiullah, said: "They were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and Down With America. They broke into the terminals after snatching our guns."
Security was supposed to have been tightened after a Nato convoy passing through the Khyber Pass was recently ransacked. Television pictures have subsequently shown Taliban guerrillas in Pakistan's lawless tribal area driving around in Humvees looted from that assault.
"We don't feel safe here at all," said Kifayatullah Khan, a depot manager, who predicted that most of the guards would now quit out of fear. "It is almost impossible for us to continue with this business."
The US military in Afghanistan said its loss from yesterday's attack would have "minimal effect on our operations".
It was revealed at the weekend that much of the $10bn (£6.8bn) in American military aid given to Pakistan over the past 10 years - to maximise its contribution to the so-called war on terror - had been wasted or used to boost the Pakistani armed forces in their ongoing standoff with India.
The admission comes as a series of top-level reviews of US policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan near completion. Officials say the reassessments, containing new policy options, are intended to ensure that president-elect Barack Obama "hits the ground running" when he takes office next month.
"We've gone seven long years proclaiming that Pakistan was an ally and that it was doing everything we asked in the war on terror," a senior official involved in drafting the review told the New York Times yesterday."And the truth is that $10bn later, they still don't have the basic capacity for counterinsurgency operations. What we are telling Obama and his people is that has to be reversed."
The Khyber Pass area is being targeted by a newly emerged commander called Hakimullah Mehsud, who is a deputy of the feared Baitullah Mehsud, the militant who leads Pakistan's main Taliban faction. Hakimullah, who is based in another part of the tribal area called Orakzai, has started to hold press conferences to trumpet his successes. His men enjoy the use of stolen Humvees.
Hakimullah Mehsud said in a recent TV interview that he was opposed to the Pakistani authorities, as well as western troops. "We are at war with those who support Nato forces," he said.
There are few other options for Nato supplies. Iran also borders Afghanistan and has ports that could service it but this would be politically unpalatable. A long, cumbersome route via Russia and the central Asian states is a possibility but Russia has shown reluctance to help.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/0...o-raid-pakistan
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• Islamist leader warns of increase in armed attacks
• $10bn given to Pakistan to fight war on terror 'wasted'
Pakistani employees inspect the damage at one of the Nato supply depots in Peshawar after the militants’ attack left more than 100 burned-out vehicles. Photograph: Tariq Mahmood/AFP/Getty Images
Gunmen mounted the biggest attack yet on Nato supplies going to Afghanistan yesterday, torching more than 100 trucks carrying equipment at a depot in north-west Pakistan, the main route for supplies to troops in land-locked Afghanistan.
Security guards at two depots in Peshawar were outnumbered by more than 200 militants at around 3am. About 70 Humvees, which were loaded on some of the trucks, were destroyed. Most of the vehicles were reduced to charred hulks of metal. "They fired rockets, hurled hand grenades and then set ablaze 96 trucks," said a senior police officer in Peshawar, Azeem Khan.
The attack came as Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar urged western forces to leave Afghanistan before thousands of their troops were killed in the Islamist group's renewed insurgency.
Omar, believed to be hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in an email statement: "I would like to remind the illegal invaders who have invaded our defenceless and oppressed people that it is a golden opportunity for you at present to hammer out an exit strategy for your forces. The current armed clashes which now number into tens will spiral up to hundreds of armed clashes. Your current casualties of hundreds will jack up into the thousands."
The Taliban has a permanent presence in 72% of the territory of Afghanistan, up from 54% last year, and is expanding its control beyond the rural south of the country, the International Council on Security and Development, formerly the Senlis Council, says in a report today.
The independent thinktank and research organisation says three of the four main routes leading out of Kabul, the capital, are threatened by the Taliban.
Most of the additional American troops arriving in Afghanistan early next year will be deployed near Kabul, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing American military commanders.
The Pakistani Taliban have begun to focus increasingly on choking off the supply path through Pakistan, which is used to take over 70% of military equipment, food, fuel and other vital provisions to western soldiers across the border.
Supplies are trucked hundreds of miles from the port at Karachi across Pakistan to Peshawar, and then onward to Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.
A security guard at one of the depots said there had been 13 of them trying to hold out against the militants yesterday; they had been forced to give up after about half an hour. One security guard was killed in the shoot-out.
Another guard, Mohammad Rafiullah, said: "They were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and Down With America. They broke into the terminals after snatching our guns."
Security was supposed to have been tightened after a Nato convoy passing through the Khyber Pass was recently ransacked. Television pictures have subsequently shown Taliban guerrillas in Pakistan's lawless tribal area driving around in Humvees looted from that assault.
"We don't feel safe here at all," said Kifayatullah Khan, a depot manager, who predicted that most of the guards would now quit out of fear. "It is almost impossible for us to continue with this business."
The US military in Afghanistan said its loss from yesterday's attack would have "minimal effect on our operations".
It was revealed at the weekend that much of the $10bn (£6.8bn) in American military aid given to Pakistan over the past 10 years - to maximise its contribution to the so-called war on terror - had been wasted or used to boost the Pakistani armed forces in their ongoing standoff with India.
The admission comes as a series of top-level reviews of US policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan near completion. Officials say the reassessments, containing new policy options, are intended to ensure that president-elect Barack Obama "hits the ground running" when he takes office next month.
"We've gone seven long years proclaiming that Pakistan was an ally and that it was doing everything we asked in the war on terror," a senior official involved in drafting the review told the New York Times yesterday."And the truth is that $10bn later, they still don't have the basic capacity for counterinsurgency operations. What we are telling Obama and his people is that has to be reversed."
The Khyber Pass area is being targeted by a newly emerged commander called Hakimullah Mehsud, who is a deputy of the feared Baitullah Mehsud, the militant who leads Pakistan's main Taliban faction. Hakimullah, who is based in another part of the tribal area called Orakzai, has started to hold press conferences to trumpet his successes. His men enjoy the use of stolen Humvees.
Hakimullah Mehsud said in a recent TV interview that he was opposed to the Pakistani authorities, as well as western troops. "We are at war with those who support Nato forces," he said.
There are few other options for Nato supplies. Iran also borders Afghanistan and has ports that could service it but this would be politically unpalatable. A long, cumbersome route via Russia and the central Asian states is a possibility but Russia has shown reluctance to help.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/0...o-raid-pakistan
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MSantor - March 31, 2009 10:18 PM (GMT)
Yikes. :wow:
++http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090331/world/pakistan
++http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090331/world/pakistan
| QUOTE |
| Pakistani Taliban threatens White House attack that will 'amaze everyone' Tue Mar 31, 2:53 PM By Ishtiaq Mahsud, The Associated Press DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the White House that would "amaze" the world. Baitullah Mehsud, who has a US$5 million bounty on his head from the United States, said Monday's attack on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border. "Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone. He provided no details. In his latest comments, Mehsud identified the White House as one of the targets in an interview with local Dewa Radio, a copy of which was obtained by the AP. Mehsud has never been directly linked to any attacks outside Pakistan, but attacks blamed on his network of fighters have widened in scope and ambition in recent years. The threat comes days after U.S. President Barack Obama warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the United States from secret havens in Pakistan. Pakistan's former government and the CIA named Mehsud as the prime suspect behind the December 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistani officials accuse him of harbouring foreign fighters, including Central Asians linked to al-Qaida, and of training suicide bombers. (...) The gunmen who attacked the police academy killed seven police and two civilians, holding security forces at bay for about eight hours before being overpowered by Pakistani commandos. Some of the attackers wore police uniforms, and they took hostages and tossed grenades during the assault. Earlier Tuesday, a spokesman from a little-known militant group linked to the Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for the attack and a similar ambush-style attack against the Sri Lankan cricket team earlier this month in Lahore. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the two claims. (...) The Pakistani Taliban has links with al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban militants who have launched attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from a base in the border region between the two countries. Pakistan faces tremendous U.S. pressure to eradicate militants from its soil and has launched several military operations in the Afghan border region. The United States has stepped up drone attacks against militants in the area, causing tension with Pakistani officials who protest... (...) |
MSantor - April 23, 2009 05:53 PM (GMT)
Yet more proof that the Pakistani government made a mistake in allowing the Taliban to regroup at the Swat valley in a special truce they recently agreed with them recently. It's time the Pakistani military retook the Swat Valley from the Taliban! :fire: Or else the rest of Pakistan might fall to the Taliban! :wow:
| QUOTE |
| Pakistan sends troops to area grabbed by Taliban ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities on Thursday deployed paramilitary troops to a district, only 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, where Taliban militants appeared to be consolidating control after this week's land-grab. Militants locked up courthouses and seized court documents in the district of Buner, said police Superintendent Arsala Khan. However, a highly placed Buner official said the judges left voluntarily after meeting with Taliban leaders. A van carrying Frontier Corps paramilitary troops through the district came under fire Thursday. One police official was killed and another wounded, authorities said. The troops were sent to protect civilians and properties, said Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, spokesman for Pakistan's military. He said the government was monitoring the situation closely, and talks were under way among community elders, the civilian administration and the Taliban. "Taliban is only in control of 25 percent of Buner district," Abbas said. "The Taliban will either move out or they'll be thrown out, one way or another." The militant group's leaders met with community elders and the civilian administration Thursday and agreed that its members will not move about openly with guns nor will they disturb police, courts, schools, hospitals or non-governmental organizations. The takeover of Buner brings the Taliban closer to the capital, Islamabad, than it has been since the insurgency started. The Taliban commander in Buner, Mowlana Mohammed Khalil, gave a statement before Pakistani television cameras Wednesday, appearing with his face hidden behind a cloth mask. "We came here only to preach Islam," Khalil said. He added that his fighters were carrying weapons only because they were an important symbol for Muslims. The militants said they took control of the Buner district to ensure that Islamic law, or sharia, was properly imposed. The Pakistani government called the advance into the district a breach of a recently signed peace agreement. Residents of Buner said the militants had set up checkpoints and were patrolling streets throughout the district. Speaking by telephone from Buner on Wednesday night, Sardar Hussain Babik, education minister for the North West Frontier Province regional government, accused the militants of looting the offices of non-government organizations and stealing cars. "This is an open violation," Babik said. He said it was the government's duty to re-assert its authority in the region, and added that troops were being mustered to resist the Taliban. "We are collecting from different parts of the province," he said. A few hours' drive away, in the Pakistani capital, salesmen hawking Urdu newspapers in morning traffic on Thursday called out headlines over the din of car engines. "Taliban has entered Islamabad," a newsboy yelled. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands because of failed government policies, and called on Pakistani citizens and expatriates to voice more concern. "I think that we cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by continuing advances, now within hours of Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, a nuclear-armed state," Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in her first appearance before Congress since being confirmed. "I don't hear that kind of outrage and concern coming from enough people that would reverberate back within the highest echelons of the civilian and military leadership of Pakistan." Mike Mullen, U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was in Islamabad on Wednesday to meet with Pakistani officials. Taliban militants implemented Islamic law in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley last week, before taking control of the neighboring Buner district. But Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, told CNN on Wednesday that the situation was not as dire as Clinton described. "Yes, we have a challenge," Haqqani said. "But, no, we do not have a situation in which the government or the country of Pakistan is about to fall to the Taliban." Taliban fighters moved into the Swat Valley as part of a peace deal with the government that has come under fire from U.S. observers. But Haqqani compared it to the deals U.S. commanders in Iraq made to peel insurgents away from Islamic jihadists blamed for the worst attacks on civilians there. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said at a news briefing Thursday: "I want to explain to the West and Hillary Clinton about the agreement. ... The agreement is actually a very good thing. ... It brings two parties to an agreement based on mutual understanding." "We have to establish control of government in Malakand division," which includes Swat, he said. "If peace is not restored in that area [Malakand], certainly we have to review our policy." "If there is an effort of Taliban-ization, we have the right to review our policy." |
MSantor - April 24, 2009 03:49 PM (GMT)
Reportedly, the Taliban have withdrawn to the Swat valley...for now.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...6wVTmAD97OQNM00
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...6wVTmAD97OQNM00
| QUOTE |
| Pakistani Taliban pull back to Swat stronghold By RIAZ KHAN – 3 hours ago PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Taliban militants began pulling out of a recently seized district of northwestern Pakistan on Friday and returning to a stronghold where they have signed a peace deal with the government, a local official and the insurgents said. The apparent withdrawal from Buner is unlikely to do much to ally Western fears that Islamabad is failing to deal forcefully with militants seen as slowly expanding into the heart of the country from strongholds close to the Afghan order. Witness said scores of militants had effectively taken control of Buner since the government formally agreed to a peace deal in the adjoining Swat Valley region early this month. Buner is just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad, and the advance raised alarm bells in Pakistan and the West. TV images showed dozens of militants emerging on Friday from a high-walled villa that served as their headquarters in Buner, a rural area in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains. The men, most of them masked with black scarves and carrying automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, clambered into several pickup trucks and minibuses before driving away. Syed Mohammed Javed, the top government administrator in the region, said a hard-line cleric who helped mediate the disputed peace deal persuaded the Taliban to return to Swat in a meeting on Friday. "We told them that we have a deal, we have a peace agreement. We told them not to become a tool in the hands of someone aiming at sabotaging the peace in the region," Javed told The Associated Press by telephone from Buner. Javed said he and the aging cleric, Sufi Muhammad, were leading the Taliban convoy back to Mingora, Swat's main town, but it was not clear when they would cross the mountains passes leading out of Buner. The government agreed in February to impose Islamic law in Swat and surrounding areas of the northwest in return for a cease-fire that halted nearly two years of bloody fighting between militants and Pakistani security forces. But hard-liners have seized on the concession to demand Islamic law across the country, and the Swat Taliban used it to justify their push into Buner, putting them within striking distance of the capital and key roads leading to the main northwestern city of Peshawar. The U.S. is considering rooting out militant sanctuaries in Pakistan critical to success in the Afghan war. It also worries about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Pakistan's leaders were "abdicating to the Taliban" in Swat, and on Thursday told U.S. lawmakers the Obama administration was trying to convince Islamabad to shift its traditional security focus from archrival India to Islamic extremists. With the pressure mounting, the army, whose ability and commitment to combating Islamist extremists is under intense international scrutiny, issued an unusually tough statement Friday. Apparently referring to the Swat deal, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said it was "meant to give the reconciliatory forces a chance (but) must not be taken for a concession to the militants." Kayani said the army was "determined to root out the menace of terrorism" and would "not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life." Government leaders had also warned they would use force if the Swat Taliban — who have beheaded opponents, torched girls schools and denounced democracy as un-Islamic — continue to challenge the state. "Those who took up arms must lay them down," Iftikhar Hussain, spokesman for the provincial government in the northwest, said earlier Friday, while issuing what he said was a "last" appeal to the Taliban to quit Buner. But they have also sought to counter a rising tide of extremist violence with dialogue and peace deals that critics worry only grant brutal extremists impunity, legitimacy and the time and space to muster more forces. The disputed peace accord covers Swat, Buner and other districts in the Malakand Division, an area of about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) near the Afghan border and the tribal areas where al-Qaida and the Taliban have strongholds. Supporters have said the deal takes away the militants' main rallying call for Islamic law and will let the government gradually reassert control. But the militants have rejected calls for them to give up their arms. Taliban commanders insisted their fighters had been preaching peacefully for Islamic law, or Sharia, in Buner and Muslim Khan, their spokesman, said they were leaving "of their own accord, not under any pressure." Asked on Express News television if they were breaking the peace accord by carrying weapons, Khan said Sharia allowed every Muslim to carry a gun — "especially those busy in jihad." Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad in Islambad contributed to this report. |
MSantor - May 3, 2009 06:17 PM (GMT)
An update about the current Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban in Pakistan.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/0...ref=mpstoryview
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/0...ref=mpstoryview
| QUOTE |
| Pakistan kills 80 in assault on Taliban Story Highlights Pakistani security forces kill at least 80 militants in country's tribal region Pakistani army has been waging a week-long crackdown on Taliban Three soldiers killed, eight wounded in crackdown in northwest of country ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani armed forces have killed 80 militants since launching an assault on a region recently held by the Taliban, the military announced Sunday. Three soldiers have been killed and eight wounded in the crackdown in the Buner district in the northwest of the country, the military statement said. The Pakistani offensive started in the province last Sunday, after Taliban militants moved into Buner, a move that alarmed U.S. and Pakistani officials. Pakistani security forces also killed at least 16 militants late Friday and early Saturday in the Mohmand district, in the country's volatile tribal region, the country's military said on Saturday. The incident appears to be separate from the hostilities in Buner. However, it reflects the tensions in the region and could signal a spread of fighting resulting from the crackdown. In the incident, about 100 militants attacked a Frontier Corps post in the Mohmand Agency, or district, an area where militants hold great sway. Troops returned fire and killed the 16 militants, the military said. Mohmand is in the country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas that border a volatile region in war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. Earlier this year, Pakistan had entered into an agreement with militants, allowing them to enforce Islamic law, or sharia, in parts of Swat Valley in exchange for ceasing violence. The Swat Valley is a broader area that includes several provincial districts, including Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Malakand, Upper Dir, and Lower Dir. But Pakistani officials say the armed militants' advance into Buner district violated the agreement and briefly halted peace talks between the two sides in North West Frontier Province. Representatives from Pakistan's government and the Taliban restarted their negotiations on Friday and were planning to have another session soon, a provincial spokesman said. The Pakistani government has been criticized for not cracking down on militants along its border with Afghanistan. As a result, the U.S. military has carried out airstrikes against militant targets in Pakistan, which have rankled relations between the two countries. |
MSantor - May 4, 2009 03:05 AM (GMT)
He is calling for a coup? Is he crazy? That's not gonna help stabilize this country. :wow:
http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/05/01/joh...itary-takeover/
http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/05/01/joh...itary-takeover/
| QUOTE |
| John Bolton: We may have to acquiesce in a ‘Pakistani military takeover’ By Muriel Kane Published: May 1, 2009 Updated 2 days ago Perennial Neoconservative gadfly John Bolton, who has often been accused of making exaggerated claims about Middle Eastern threats, is now suggesting that a military coup in Pakistan may be the only viable response to the growing power of the Taliban. In an op-ed for Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Bolton writes, “To prevent catastrophe will require considerable American effort and unquestionably provoke resistance from many Pakistanis, often for widely differing reasons. We must strengthen pro-American elements in Pakistan’s military so they can purge dangerous Islamicists from their ranks; roll back Taliban advances; and, together with our increased efforts in Afghanistan, decisively defeat the militants on either side of the border. This may mean stifling some of our democratic squeamishness and acquiescing in a Pakistani military takeover, if the civilian government melts before radical pressures. So be it.” Bolton’s stance on Pakistan appear to go hand-in-hand with his recent attempts to describe the Obama administration’s international outreach efforts as amounting to a “tangible projection of weakness” and “revealing a Jimmy Carter-style unwillingness to do what’s necessary in a hard world to protect America’s interest.” Both Bolton’s temper and his attempts to force intelligence analysis to match his own preconceptions are legendary. When he was nominated by former President Bush to be United Nations ambassador in 2005, the former head of the State Department’s intelligence bureau, Carl Ford, testified that Bolton was “a serial abuser” who had tried to have an analyst fired because he disagreed with Bolton’s belief that Cuba has a biological weapons program. In his current op-ed, Bolton somewhat surprisingly blames the Bush administration for creating the current crisis by “pushing former President Pervez Musharraf into unwise elections and effectively removing him from power,” a policy which Bolton compares to the 1963 CIA-sponsored overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Bolton also paradoxically argues that the current danger of Pakistan’s atomic weapons falling into the hands of the Taliban is actually the result of earlier US efforts to discourage Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation. “We are reaping the consequences of failed nonproliferation policies that in the past penalized Pakistan for its nuclear program by cutting off military assistance and scaling back the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program that brought hundreds of Pakistani officers to the U.S.” Bolton insists. “Perhaps inevitably, the Pakistani officers who haven’t participated in IMET are increasingly subject to radical influences.” |
MSantor - May 5, 2009 01:25 PM (GMT)
Looks like it's gonna be harder to dislodge the Taliban from Swat.
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The Taliban Tightens Hold In Pakistan's Swat Region http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9050400189.html By Pamela ConstableWashington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, May 5, 2009 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 4 -- Taliban forces tightened their grip on Pakistan's Swat region Monday and continued resisting the military's efforts to dislodge them from neighboring Buner, bringing a fragile peace accord closer to collapse and the volatile northwest region nearer to full-fledged conflict. Yet even as the Taliban continued its rampage and rejected the government's latest concession to its demands -- the appointment of Islamic-law judges in Swat -- Pakistan's military leaders clung to hopes for a nonviolent solution, saying that security forces were "still exercising restraint to honor the peace agreement." Behind this strained hope for a peaceful solution lie an array of factors -- competing military priorities, reluctance to fight fellow Muslims, lack of strong executive leadership and some internal sympathy for the insurgents -- that analysts say have long prevented the Pakistani army from making a full-fledged assault on violent Islamist groups. Over the past two days, extremists in the northwest have attacked a military convoy, beheaded two soldiers, imposed a curfew and blown up a boys' high school and a police station. Troop reinforcements were sent into Buner on Monday after heavy fighting, and there were reports that the army would imminently launch an attack on Swat, an action that could coincide with a crucial aid-seeking visit to Washington this week by President Asif Ali Zardari, whose government has been criticized by U.S. officials for capitulating to the insurgents. |
MSantor - May 9, 2009 03:49 PM (GMT)
Looks like our war has moved south considering the number of local civilians displaced. Look up the Durand Line.
At least the Pakistani Army has reportedly killed about 143 militants so far.
At least the Pakistani Army has reportedly killed about 143 militants so far.
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Pakistan moves against Swat militants, civilians flee Reuters By Junaid Khan Junaid Khan – Fri May 8, 11:22 am ET MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani forces attacked Taliban militants in the Swat valley on Friday as concern grew about the fate of nearly a million people displaced by an upsurge in violence. The military said 143 militants had been killed in the Islamist bastion of Swat over the past 24 hours. There was no independent confirmation. Seven soldiers had been killed, an army spokesman said. The struggle in the scenic northwestern valley 130 km (80 miles) from Islamabad and a former center for tourism has become a test of Pakistan's resolve to fight a growing Taliban insurgency that has alarmed the United States. Civilians have poured out of the valley since fighting intensified on Wednesday and aid groups have warned of an intensifying humanitarian crisis. The U.N. refugee agency said a "massive displacement" was underway. Citing provincial government estimates, it said up to 200,000 people had left their homes over recent days with another 300,000 on the move or about to move. They are joining another 555,000 people displaced in other areas because of fighting since August, it said. The government has ordered the army to strike at "militants and terrorists" it said were trying to hold the country hostage at gunpoint. "On the directive of the government, the army is now engaged in a full-scale operation to eliminate the militants," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a news briefing at army headquarters in Rawalpindi. "They are on the run and trying to block exodus of civilians from the area," Abbas said, while warning that the operation was difficult and declining to give a time for clearing the valley. |
MSantor - May 9, 2009 09:56 PM (GMT)
Good.
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| Agence France-Presse - 5/9/2009 3:45 PM GMT Taliban 'on the run' after Pakistan offensive Pakistan's military said on Saturday that a full-scale offensive in the northwest has put militants on the back foot following a pledge from President Asif Ali Zardari to eliminate the Taliban. Warplanes pounded rebel hideouts in the Swat valley, an ex-ski resort where up to 15,000 security forces have been deployed under orders to crush extremists in an escalating conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands. "They are on the run," the army said in a statement, without making clear exactly how much progress it had made in driving militants from their positions. But the statement added that Taliban fighters were "trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by preventing their departure through coercion, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), road blocks with trees and even (making them) hostages". Meanwhile a suspected US drone fired missiles at a compound used by militants in South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, killing six militants and injuring 10 others, officials said. The military said Friday an air and ground offensive to crush the Taliban in the northwest killed more than 140 militants. It was impossible to confirm the death tolls independently, given ongoing operations across three districts which began late last month when the hardline insurgents advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad. Meanwhile, fresh troops were entering the Malakand district which neighbours Swat valley, a local military official told AFP. People fleeing the area, however, have accused the military of also killing civilians in the fierce bombardment. Aftaba Begum, 60, told AFP in Jalala refugee camp near the town of Mardan that she had fractured her leg as shells from helicopter gunships hit Mingora three days ago. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who is on a state visit to the United States, has pledged to eliminate the Taliban. "This is an offensive -- this is war. If they kill our soldiers, then we do the same," Zardari told PBS public television Friday, during a visit to Washington. Pressed on whether Pakistan's stated goal of "eliminating" militants meant killing them, Zardari replied: "Eliminate means exactly what it means." The UN refugee agency has warned up to one million people have been displaced in northwest Pakistan, with tens of thousands streaming out of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat, registering in camps or sheltering with families. The government has said it was bracing to cope with half a million people displaced by the fighting. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after told a press conference after meeting his cabinet on Saturday that the army would minimise civilian casualties while the government would look after those displaced by the conflict. "It is our resolve and it is the resolve of the armed forces that there should be minimum collateral damage and the operation should be over as soon as possible," Gilani said. "The operation will continue till the elimination of extremists." Gilani announced the setting up of a 200 million rupee (2.5 million dollar) fund for the displaced and said cabinet ministers would donate a month's salary each. The fighting has sunk a controversial February deal between the government and an Islamist hardliner that aimed to put three million people under sharia law in a bid to end the Taliban uprising. Critics said the deal emboldened the Taliban and have welcomed the renewed military offensive, which also has broad public support. They have warned that Pakistan must move to rebuild lives shattered by the action if it is to be a success. The offensive was launched after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani late Thursday appealed for unity against extremists whom he said were risking the sovereignty of the nuclear-armed nation and violated the peace deal. |
MSantor - May 10, 2009 04:39 PM (GMT)
From the Long War Journal...
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| Excerpt 1 The US launched a covert airstrike against a Taliban safe house in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The US targeted a Taliban compound with an airstrike in the lawless tribal agency of South Waziristan, killing between five to ten terrorists. A swarm of unmanned Predator attack aircraft fired four missiles at a compound run by Taliban forces loyal to Baituallah Mehsud in the town of Sararogha, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The official would not disclose the name of the Taliban or al Qaeda operatives targeted in the operation. The number killed is unclear, according to initial reports from Pakistan. "Officials claimed 10 Taliban had been killed, a deputy Taliban commander said five were killed, the political administration claimed nine Taliban were killed, while tribesmen claimed they had counted 25 bodies," Daily Times reported. |
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| Excerpt 2 Baitullah Mehsud leads alliance against the Pakistani government and the West Today's strike is the eighth recorded attack against camps and compounds in Baitullah's tribal areas. Baitullah is the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, a group established in December of 2007 to unite disparate Taliban groups in Pakistan's northwest. The Tehrik-e-Taliban has led the insurgency and conducted many of the terror attacks against the Pakistani government. In February, Baitullah put aside tribal rivalries and joined forces with senior Taliban leaders Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Mullah Nazir in February of this year to form the Council of United Mujahideen. The three leaders said they "united according to the wishes of Mujahideen leaders like Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden." |
MSantor - May 20, 2009 02:51 PM (GMT)
And the Pakistani Army campaign against the Taliban continues.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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| By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Zarar Khan, Associated Press Writer – 21 mins ago ISLAMABAD – Pakistani troops killed 80 militants and drove the Taliban from a major urban stronghold on Wednesday, the army said, as U.S. military planes brought aid for refugees fleeing fierce fighting across the northwest. One soldier was killed and nine seriously wounded as troops battled insurgents still holding several other towns in the neighboring Swat Valley, a military spokesman said. Pakistani troops launched an offensive last month after Taliban militants based in Swat pushed into Buner, bringing them within 60 miles (100 kilometers) of the capital of Islamabad and prompting intense U.S. pressure for a stiff response. Government forces cleared Sultanwas, the main Taliban-held town in Buner, overnight following intense clashes, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. He said troops destroyed several vehicles used by black-clad militants and defused a string of homemade bombs. "Sultanwas was the main stronghold of terrorist-miscreants in Buner, where they have made concrete underground bunkers and ammunition dumps," Abbas said. The army claims it has killed more than 1,000 militants and re-claimed swaths of territory recently seized by the militants. However, the clashes have prompted some 1.5 million people to flee their homes, a humanitarian emergency that could sap Pakistani enthusiasm for similar action against other Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries near the Afghan border. Relatives have taken in many of those fleeing. However, more than 100,000 refugees are housed in sweltering camps south of the war zone. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Tuesday that Washington would provide $110 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to Pakistan. As part of that effort, two American military planes touched down on Wednesday at an air base near Islamabad laden with supplies including air-conditioned tents and 120,000 pre-packed meals, the U.S. Embassy said. |
MSantor - May 23, 2009 01:41 AM (GMT)
Hopefully victory will come soon to the Pakistani Army who will defeat the Taliban.
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| The Pakistani army has encircled the Taliban in a number of strongholds across the Swat valley, a senior army officer said yesterday as the UN launched a $543m appeal for 2 million people displaced by the conflict. "The noose is very tight around them. They are taking casualties every day," said Major General Sajjid Ghani, who leads the fight in the northern half of the valley. "We are closing in on them and we will eliminate them." To prove the point, the army flew reporters to a mountain peak with a commanding view over the valley it had captured two days earlier after a 12-hour battle. Ghani pointed out several recently captured villages including Matta, a former Taliban stronghold. But the general refused to estimate how long the operation would take, and the sound of explosions and machine gun fire in the near distance suggested more tough fighting lay ahead. |
MSantor - May 30, 2009 01:27 PM (GMT)
So is the end of this campaign within sight?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090530/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090530/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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| Military retakes largest town in Swat Valley By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press Writer – 1 min ago ISLAMABAD – Pakistani troops have retaken the largest town in the Swat Valley from the Taliban as the army presses its offensive against militants in the country's northwest, the army spokesman said Saturday. Government forces had full control of Mingora, though they were still meeting pockets of resistance from fighters on the outskirts of the town, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Abbas said many militants had fled the town instead of confronting troops in a final battle, despite the military saying earlier that escape routes had been closed. "They had prepared Mingora city ... with bunkers, but when they realized that they were being encircled and the noose was tightening they decided not to give a pitched battle," Abbas said. The military launched a major offensive one month ago in the Swat Valley and neighboring areas to oust Taliban militants who were extending their control over the northwestern region, near the border with Afghanistan. The campaign is strongly backed by Washington and the government's other Western allies, who see it as a test of the government's resolve to fight extremism in the Pakistan. Government troops had been advancing steadily into the Swat region, bombarding towns from the air and fighting house-to-house with Taliban gunmen. The fighting has caused more than 2 million people to flee the region, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis. More than 160,000 people are taking refuge in sweltering refugee camps south of the battle zone, while the rest are staying with relatives or relying on goodwill from local residents. Widespread domestic support for the campaign could sour if the government is perceived to have failed the refugees or if a high number of civilian casualties is revealed. The Taliban has warned it will launch terrorist strikes in Pakistani cities in retaliation for the campaign, and claimed responsibility for a gun and suicide bomb attack on Wednesday in the eastern city of Lahore that killed at least 30 people. A day later, three suicide bombings killed at least 14 people in two cities in the northwest. Abbas said on Saturday that 1,217 militants have been killed in the Swat offensive and 79 arrested; 81 soldiers have died. The military has not released civilian casualties and has said all care has been taken to minimize them. The figures could be independently verified. The tally and the extent of destruction caused by the fighting is largely unknown because media have been restricted from traveling in the region. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday defended the decision to launch the offensive, saying it was necessary because the Taliban had challenged the authority of the government by advancing from its stronghold of Swat to the neighboring district of Buner, just 60 (100 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. "The very existence of Pakistan was at stake, we had to start the operation," Gilani told a group of workers at state-owned Pakistan Television. He promised cash payments to people forced from their homes and a massive reconstruction effort. ____ Associated Press Writers Asif Shahzad and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad contributed to this report. |
MSantor - June 5, 2009 03:49 PM (GMT)
Some good news from this blighted part of the world: the local people in the areas the Taliban used to control/currently control are now turning against the Taliban, according to this report.
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June 5, 2009 Taliban Stir Rising Anger of Pakistanis By SABRINA TAVERNISE ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A year ago, the Pakistani public was deeply divided over what to do about its spreading insurgency. Some saw the Taliban militants as fellow Muslims and native sons who simply wanted Islamic law, and many opposed direct military action against them. But history moves quickly in Pakistan, and after months of televised Taliban cruelties, broken promises and suicide attacks, there is a spreading sense — apparent in the news media, among politicians and the public — that many Pakistanis are finally turning against the Taliban. |
MSantor - June 7, 2009 02:15 PM (GMT)
And the offensive continues in earnest not too long after a deadly suicide attack in a Pakistani mosque that was believed to have been planned by the Taliban.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090607/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090607/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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| Pakistanis avenge mosque blast, attack Taliban Associated Press Writer Asif Shahzad, Associated Press Writer – 49 mins ago ISLAMABAD – Hundreds of Pakistanis banded together and attacked Taliban strongholds in a troubled northwestern region, killing 11 militants, to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a local mosque, officials said Sunday. The incident Saturday underscored a swing in the national mood toward a more anti-Taliban stance — a shift that comes as suicide attacks have surged and the military wages an offensive in the Swat Valley. Some 400 villagers from the neighboring Upper Dir district, where a suicide bomber killed 33 worshippers at a mosque in the Haya Gai area on Friday, formed a militia and attacked five villages in the nearby Dhok Darra area, said Atif-ur-Rehman, the district coordination officer. The citizens' militia has occupied three of the villages since Saturday and is trying to push the Taliban out of the other two. Some 20 houses suspected of harboring Taliban were destroyed, he said. At least 11 militants were killed, said the district police chief, Ejaz Ahmad. The government has encouraged local citizens to set up militias, known as lashkars, to oust Taliban fighters. "It is something very positive that tribesmen are standing against the militants. It will discourage the miscreants," Rehman said. Ahmad said around 200 militants were putting up stiff resistance in their strongholds surrounded by the villagers. "We will send security forces, maybe artillery too, if the villagers ask for a reinforcement," he added. The surge in suicide attacks reached Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, on Saturday when a man wearing an explosive-laden jacket attacked a police compound but was shot down before he could enter the main building. Two officers died and six were wounded, police said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack at the police emergency response center, but it fit with a Taliban threat of strikes in major cities across Pakistan in retaliation for the military's month-old offensive in Swat. On Sunday, police in the southern city of Karachi said they averted a suicide attack by arresting a would-be bomber allegedly linked to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Several explosives and bomb-laden jackets were found during the raid, which was spurred by a tip, senior police official Javed Bukhari said. "He was planning to carry out large attacks in Karachi with other accomplices, but we have averted the attempt," he said. The Swat battle is seen as a test of Pakistan's resolve to take on militants challenging the government in the northwestern regions near Afghanistan. More than 1,300 militants and 105 soldiers have died so far, the military says. The U.S. supports the Swat offensive, hoping it will eliminate a potential sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban militants implicated in attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan. The campaign began after the collapse of the most recent peace deal, which imposed Islamic law in Swat and surrounding districts. The agreement was brokered by hard-line cleric Sufi Muhammad, three of whose aides were arrested by security forces last week. Two of the aides were killed Saturday after the Taliban attacked their convoy, the army said. The motive for the ambush was unclear. It could have been an attempt to rescue the men or kill them before they gave intelligence to the military. But Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said Sunday that Pakistani authorities killed the men because U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke was visiting. "It is a gift the government has presented to Holbrooke," Khan told The Associated Press via phone from an undisclosed location. "We believe that they are martyred. We want to tell the government that their martyrdom is not going to be futile." There have been tensions between Sufi Muhammad's movement and the Taliban, which itself is composed of different factions. In Bajur tribal region, a clash between the two groups left four dead Saturday, a local official said. The fight occurred over the alleged abduction of a Taliban commander, said Faramoosh Khan, an administrator in Bajur's Mamund town. Bajur was the focus of a previous military offensive, and the military said it vanquished the Taliban there in February, but reports of militant activity in the region persist. ___ Associated Press writers Ashraf Khan in Islamabad and Habib Khan in Khar contributed to this report. |
MSantor - June 9, 2009 06:13 AM (GMT)
Serves "Terry" Taliban right for all the trouble he caused in Pakistan; they're getting cornered by the locals they tried to control.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090609/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090609/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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| Taliban cornered in NW Pakistan by angry locals Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer – 23 mins ago ISLAMABAD – A group of Taliban fighters under siege by hundreds of angry tribesmen tried to sneak to another village in northwest Pakistan, only to find themselves cornered there too, an official said Tuesday. A citizens' militia that sprang up over the weekend to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir district appeared unwilling to stop pursuing the Islamist fighters, underscoring the rising anti-Taliban sentiment in Pakistan. The growing pressure on militants who have held sway in parts of Pakistan's northwest comes as the army bears down on their one-time stronghold in the Swat Valley region. Talk has also turned to the possibility of another operation against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the nearby tribal belt along the country's border with Afghanistan, something U.S. officials privately say they would like to see. Some 1,500 tribesmen laid siege to several villages known as Taliban strongholds in Upper Dir over the weekend, eventually cornering militants in Shatkas and Ghazi Gay villages. By Tuesday, some of the Taliban tried to get away to Malik Bai village, which the tribesmen also encircled, police official Fazal Rabi said. "About 200 Taliban have been surrounded by the militia" in the villages, Rabi said. Officials have said the Taliban carried out Friday's mosque bombing that killed 33 in the town of Haya Gai because they were angry that local tribesmen had resisted their moving into the area, where minor clashes between the two sides occurred for months. Rabi said the tribesmen had sworn on the Quran that they would not let the militants go unpunished. At least 13 insurgents have died in the fighting since Saturday. The citizens' militia, or lashkar, was using its own weapons and had no police backup, Rabi said. The army's chief spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, on Monday urged civilians to consider the kind of rule the Taliban was trying to impose — they stand accused of whippings and beheadings in the name of Islamic law in Swat — and join the fight against them. "Citizens should ponder upon the way of life they are introducing, if that is acceptable to us," Abbas told the News1 television network. "If not, they have to raise a voice against them, they have to rise against them." Washington strongly backs the Swat offensive, and officials have said privately they would like Pakistan to follow up by launching an operation in nearby South Waziristan tribal region, the main base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.The government has announced no plans to attack the area, where al-Qaida fighters also are believed to be operating. |
MSantor - June 9, 2009 10:28 PM (GMT)
And the Taliban in Pakistan retaliate with another bombing in a Pakistani city. Apparently they don't realize this will only hasten their demise since this will only further inflame Pakistanis against them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090609/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090609/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
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| Bomb at luxury hotel in Pakistan kills at least 11 Riaz Khan, Associated Press Writer – 27 mins ago PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Suicide attackers shot their way past guards and set off a massive blast Tuesday outside a luxury hotel where foreigners and well-to-do Pakistanis mixed, killing at least 11 people and wounding 70, officials said. The bombers struck the Pearl Continental Hotel at about 10 p.m., when nightlife was still in swing. The attack reduced a section of the hotel to concrete rubble and twisted steel and left a huge crater in a parking lot. The blast came a week after Taliban leaders warned they would carry out major attacks in large cities in retaliation for an army offensive to reclaim the nearby Swat Valley region from the militants. No claim surfaced immediately for the bombing in Peshawar, the northwest's largest city with about 2.2 million people. Earlier in the day, officials said Pakistan's military engaged militants on two fronts elsewhere in the northwest. The army dispatched helicopter gunships in support of citizens fighting the Taliban in one district and used artillery fire against militants in another after sympathetic tribal elders refused to hand them over. Neither operation was anywhere near the size of the military's offensive in the Swat Valley, where 15,000 troops have battled up to 7,000 Taliban fighters. But the battles Monday and Tuesday in the Upper Dir and Bannu districts suggest that pockets of pro-Taliban sentiment remain strong in some areas, while the militants' form of hardline Islam is unpalatable in others — particularly because of the violence the militants have used to enforce it. Peshawar lies in between the two districts. The Pearl Continental, affectionately called the "PC" by Pakistanis, overlooks a golf course and a historic fort. The ritziest hotel in the city, it is relatively well-guarded and set far back from the main road. Police official Liaqat Ali said witnesses gave vivid accounts of how the bombers carried out their attack. Three men in a pickup truck approached the hotel's main gate, opened fire at security guards, drove inside and detonated the bomb close to the building, Ali said. A senior police officer, Shafqatullah Malik, estimated it contained more than half a ton of explosives. The chaotic scene echoed a bombing last year at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel that killed more than 50 people. Both hotels were favored places for foreigners and elite Pakistanis to stay and socialize, making them high-profile targets for militants despite tight security. The method of attack also matched a May 27 assault on buildings belonging to police and a regional headquarters of Pakistan's top intelligence agency in the eastern city of Lahore, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. A small group opened fire on security guards to get through a guard post, then detonated an explosive-laden van. In Washington, two senior U.S. officials said the State Department had been in negotiations with the hotel's owners to either purchase or sign a long-term lease to the facility to house a new American consulate in Peshawar. The officials said they were not aware of any sign that U.S. interest in the compound had played a role in its being targeted. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were not public and had not been completed. They said no immediate decision had been made on whether to go ahead with plans to base the consulate on the hotel grounds. Lou Fintor, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said there were no immediate reports of American casualties. North West Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told The Associated Press early Wednesday that officials were reporting 11 deaths in the blast. Other police and government officials could confirm only five dead. An AP reporter saw six wounded foreigners being helped out of the Pearl. One said the group worked for UNHCR. The U.N. agency identified a staff member as among the dead: Aleksandar Vorkapic, 44, an information technology specialist from Belgrade, Serbia. Peshawar district coordination officer Sahibzada Anis said the blast wounded three others working for the U.N. agency — a Briton, a Somali and a German. Amjad Jamal, spokesman for the World Food Program in Pakistan, said more than 25 U.N. workers were staying at the hotel. He said all seven WFP workers were safe. Dr. Khizar Hayat at Lady Reading Hospital said the hospital received some 70 wounded people, with at least nine in critical condition. Farahnaz Ispahani, spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari and the ruling party, condemned the attackers. "We will not be cowed by these people," she said. "We will root them out, we will fight them and we will win. This is Pakistan's unity and integrity that is at stake." The military offensive in Swat and surrounding districts began in late April, and officials have blamed a handful of suicide attacks on Taliban attempts to seek revenge. U.S. officials would like Pakistan to launch an operation in the nearby South Waziristan tribal region, the main base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The government has announced no plans to attack the area, where al-Qaida fighters also are believed to be operating. A new operation started Tuesday in Jani Khel, a semiautonomous region in Bannu bordering North Waziristan, another Taliban stronghold, after the government imposed an indefinite curfew, said Kamran Zeb Khan, coordination officer for the Bannu district. He told the AP that the operation, backed by artillery, was launched after tribal elders failed to meet a Monday deadline to expel or hand over militants believed responsible for a mass kidnapping last week of students who were later released. Pakistan's military would not confirm that any operation had begun. The other fighting took place next to the Swat Valley in the Upper Dir district, where helicopter gunships arrived to support a citizens' militia battling some 200 Taliban fighters. The militia, called a lashkar, sprang up over the weekend to avenge a suicide bombing that killed 33 people at a mosque. Officials say the Taliban carried out the bombing because local tribesmen resisted their moving into the area. "In Upper Dir, as you are seeing, a lashkar has risen, people have stood up. God willing, the situation will soon improve there," legislator Najmuddin Malik said while visiting a refugee camp in Peshawar. The militia's numbers have steadily risen to more than 2,000, with residents of two villages and a town joining them Tuesday as they surrounded the Taliban in tough terrain, area police official Atlas Khan said. His report could not be independently confirmed because media access to the conflict zone has been restricted to military-escorted junkets. A tribal elder said villagers won't go home until the militants are gone — one way or another. "We are out on a mission to kill or flush out all the Taliban," Malik Motabar Khan told AP by phone from the village of Ghazi Gay. "We will stay here until we kill all of them." ___ Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad, Asif Shahzad and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. |