US tense over Pakistan

View Larger Map The same day that Pakistan closed down NATO’s supply lines to Afghanistan moving through Khyber in the north, “militants” attacked in the city of Shikarpur and savaged a convoy carrying fuel and supplies destined for troops in Afghanistan. From Geo News: More than 27 oil tankers, meant for Nato’s fuel supply and three other vehicles, have been torched after some unidentified attackers fired rockets, which resulted in eruption of raging ablaze, meanwhile two men suffered injuries in the incident, Geo News reported. Confirming the rocket attacks, Nato sources told media, the ambush took place near Shikarpur Super…

Pakistan closed NATO’s supply route in Afghanistan after claiming three Frontier Corps troops were killed by US troops in a cross-border strike. Twenty-seven NATO fuel trucks were destroyed in an attack in Shikarpur. Eight Germans and two Britons were killed in the Sept. 8 Predator strike in North Waziristan.

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Suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked and killed a man and wounded another in Maiduguri, Borno. Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed a kolanut trader and a grain seller sitting in front of a mosque. It is suspected that they were targeting a ward head at the location.

The recently uncovered terrorist plot against Europe is tied to the same mosque frequented by some of the 9/11 hijackers. The Taiba mosque was closed in August 2010, just weeks after a key terror suspect who attended the mosque was detained in Afghanistan.

Security forces detained 75 wanted men and suspected terrorists during raids in Basrah, Samara, and Diyala, and a senior al Qaeda leader in Baghdad. One policeman was killed in an armed bank robbery in Baghdad. A suicide bomber killed only himself in an attack near Sulaimaniya; the suicide bomber had entered Iraq from Iran.

An Islamist was critically injured when his own bomb exploded as he was driving his bicycle to attack a police station on the outskirts of Jakarta. The bomb exploded prematurely as he was about 100 meters away from the station. The 38-year-old Islamist had written that the attack was “revenge for the infidels who killed Islamic fighters.”

The government of the Puntland region said a Voice of America report serves to “appease Al Shabaab.” Shabaab’s spokesman said the UN meeting on Somalia was a failure. Kenya sentenced 11 Somali pirates each to five years in jail.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb released photos of the five French nationals, including the blurred face of a woman, and two African nationals who were kidnapped from Niger. The seven people were working for Areva and its construction partner, Vinci, in the uranium-rich north. Ransoms of foreigners have raised over $65 million for AQIM in the last five years.

The Taliban killed five ISAF soldiers in separate attacks in the south and three civilians in a suicide attack in Kandahar. Security forces killed and captured several Taliban and Haqqani Network commanders and members in Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Ghazni, Zabul, Khost, Paktia, Kabul, Badghis, and Kunduz. ISAF admitted it accidentally killed four civilians in Ghazni.

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Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al Kurbi confirmed the US carried out airstrikes in Yemen but claimed the actions were halted in later December 2009. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters killed three Yemeni soldiers while ambushing a convoy carrying the governor of Shabwa province.

Failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad had planned to conduct a second attack in the US, two weeks after the May 1 attempt in New York City, federal prosecutors said in documents filed in court. Shahzad used Internet webcams to case the Times Square area to determine how he could maximize casualties; he hoped to kill 40 people.

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Pakistan claimed three Frontier Corps troops were killed by ISAF helicopters. ISAF confirms its helicopters briefly engaged Haqqani Network forces across the border.

Tehran delayed the start-up of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. US Senator Joe Lieberman said the US should consider a military strike on Iran if continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons. A Japanese energy firm will quit a deal to develop an Iranian oil field. Ecuador’s president called for bilateral trade with Iran.

Security forces killed 15 Islamist fighters in Dagestan and thwarted two terror plots. Seventeen policemen were wounded in a bombing on a highway in Dagestan. Russian Prime Minister Putin put himself in charge of a special commission to deal with Caucasus security issues.

Waliur Rahman Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban of the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan and Hakeemullah Mehsud’s deputy, said the Taliban is allied with al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden is alive, Predator strikes have killed many fighters but serve as a recruiting boon, and the Taliban has a 18,000-man army.

Reuters scored an interview with Waliur Rahman Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban of the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan and Hakeemullah Mehsud’s deputy. Waliur conducted the interview from North Waziristan (despite claims from North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar that the Mehsuds have been ejected). Below are some excerpts. Waliur says the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is allied with al Qaeda: “Al Qaeda is a global organisation with branches spread all over the world, whether it is Arab countries, Europe, America or the subcontinent,” Rehman said, sitting on the floor flanked by two bodyguards. A…

Security officials claimed NATO forces killed three Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border attack in Kurram. Pakistan’s foreign minister said the military may respond to cross border raids from Afghanistan. Up to 20 Britons may be training at terror camps in Pakistan.

Eleven Somalis were killed in mortar attacks in Mogadishu. Shabaab kidnapped a journalist and burned a large amount of Somali money. Merger talks between Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab are on hold but will continue.
