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Pakistan
Brief notes on the ‘truce.’ Newsday: “tribal paramilitary forces… will handle border control duties… the Taliban [is] running a parallel government.” USA Today: “offers an ‘implicit amnesty’ to foreign and local militants.” The New York Times: “The deal is widely viewed as a face-saving retreat for the Pakistani Army.”
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Pakistan
Pakistan Denies Bin Laden Gets a Pass
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Pakistan
Pakistan backtracks on bin Laden immunity
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Pakistan
Waziristan accord signed
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Pakistan
In Pakistan, signs of al Qaeda all around
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Pakistan
Pakistan Lets Tribal Chiefs Keep Control Along Border
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Pakistan
Army vacates four posts in Miramshah, North Waziristan
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Pakistan
Bin Laden gets pass from Pakistan, would not be arrested if leading peaceful life
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Pakistan
The Taliban and Pakistani government have officially negotiated a truce in North Waziristan [see post from yesterday for background.] There is no agreement preventing the harboring of al Qaeda, or a requirement they leave the region. “Tuesday’s agreement said foreigners could stay in Waziristan, as long as they kept the peace.” Pakistani President Musharraf will visit Afghanistan, as unnamed Pakistani intelligence sources claim “the [Afghan] insurgency is purely an internal Afghan issue.”
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Pakistan
Foreign hand behind Balochistan situation can not be ruled out: Musharraf
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Pakistan Negotiates Truce in Waziristan
Pakistan is in a civil war with the Taliban and al Qaeda, and it is a war the government is losing Pakistan’s failure to commit the needed resources and political will to uproot al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan in 2001, 2004 and 2006 will haunt the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan for years to come. According to Adnkronos International, the Taliban is now “calling the shots in North and South Waziristan.” The Taliban and Pakistan have
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Pakistan
Drive to arrest pro-Taliban refugees
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Pakistan
Pukhtoon militants who fought against the US-led invasion of Afghanistan have formed a new anti-Shia militant group
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Pakistan
Pakistani troops withdraw from North Waziristan
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Pakistan
Pakistan, Taliban militants sign peace agreement – in return the army deployed in North Waziristan “will not carry out operations against them”
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Pakistan
Taliban calls the shots in North, South Waziristan
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Pakistan
(Pakistan) Truces fueling resurgence of Taliban, critics say
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Pakistan
(Pakistan) Bombs destroy 2 Bajaur posts
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The Lost Territories
North Waziristan and Quetta: Pakistani Tribal regions continue to slide into the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda The Afghan-Pakistan border regions. News from Pakistan’s western tribal belt is less than encouraging these days. The Taliban and their al Qaeda backers continue to operate from safe havens within Pakistan, particularly in North Waziristan and Quetta. The Taliban have fought the Pakistani Army to a standstill, and forced them to largely remain in barracks in the North Waziristan agency capital of Miranshah. Beheadings of suspected U.S. spies are now commonplace; the bodies of the two latest victims “were dumped at…
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A Hard August for the Taliban in Afghanistan
The “Taliban Offensive” continues to produce Taliban bodies but the Taliban and al Qaeda continue to grow in Northwestern Pakistan The Taliban’s summer of 2006 “offensive” continues to produce inordinately large numbers of Taliban casualties with little to show for the slaughter. But the Taliban still possess its bases of operation in northwestern Pakistan, and churns out fighters for the Afghan front. The Taliban has largely eschewed the established hit-and-run harassment tactics common in successful insurgencies, and has chosen to engage Afghan and Coalition forces en masse. The results have been deadly – for the Taliban. In battle after battle,…
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Rehman, Rauf, suspected London Airline Plotters Captured, and the Pakistani Connection
Wanted photo of Matiur Rehman. Click photo to view. Two of the suspected ring leaders of the al Qaeda London Airline Plot to destroy aircraft en route to the United States have been captured by Pakistani intelligence. Matiur Rehman, who is believed to be a high-ranking leader in al Qaeda’s Pakistan operations, was captured in the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur. Rashid Rauf, who is described as “the planner of the attacks who recruited people to take part in the plot,” was also captured in the city of Bahawalpur. His arrest just prior to the announcement of the airline plot is…
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Matiur Rehman, the London Airline Plot and the Road from Pakistan and Talibanistan
Matiur Rehman, image from ABC News Like the 7/7 London Tubes bombing in 2005, the London Airline Plot to destroy over 10 airplanes transiting from London to the United States is being traced back to Pakistan. Pakistan’s Daily Times reports seed money was sent to Pakistan under the guise of earthquake relief and diverted to fund the airline attack. “Muslim Charity of UK remitted… a huge amount of money under the head of “earthquake relief” to the accounts of three individuals in three different banks – Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd.” According to B. Rahman of…
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London Airline Bombing Plot News, Day Two (updated at 2:40 pm)
Twenty-four Britons have been arrested in the London Airline plot, and the Bank of England has suspended the bank accounts of 19 suspects. Nineteen of the suspects are Muslim men between the ages of 17 to 35, and have been identified as “Abdula Ali, Cossor Ali, Shahzad Ali, Nabeel Hussain, Tanvir Hussain, Umair Hussain, Umar Islam, Waseem Kayani, Assan Khan, Waheed Khan, Osman Khatib, Abdul Patel, Tayib Rauf, Muhammed Saddique, Assad Sarwar, Ibrahim Savant, Amin Tariq, Shamin Uddin and Waheed Zaman.” At least two of the suspects “had converted to devout form of Islam.” Two of the suspects are reported…
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Taliban losses in Afghanistan, gains in Pakistan
The latest round of fighting in southeastern Afghanistan has claimed over 82 Taliban fighters in two separate engagements in Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces. Security Watchtower provides a breakdown of the estimated casualties of Taliban and Coalition forces in southeastern Afghanistan since the beginning of April. An estimated 600 Taliban have been killed and 22 captured, with 41 Afghan and Coalition security forces killed or wounded combined. The estimated Taliban casualties do not contain the number of wounded, which is often twice the number killed in combat.
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Fighting in Uruzgan; Osama bin Laden sighting in Pakistan
Satellite map of the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Click to Enlarge. The provincial border region of Kandahar, Uruzgan, and Helmand remains a hot spot in Southeastern Afghanistan. Fighting between Coalition forces and the Taliban intensified Tuesday in the Tarin Kowt District of Uruzgan. Over 24 Taliban were confirmed killed after a joint Afghan and Coalition patrol engaged Taliban fighters in the region. Coalition air support was called in to strike Taliban positions. The Afghan military claims up to 60 Taliban were killed in Uruzgan, while suffering five killed and six wounded.
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Fighting in Afghanistan, Talibanistan
Recent activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Click to Enlarge. The latest estimate of Taliban casualties during the fighting over the past few days is approaching 200, with 25 Coalition, Afghan security forces and civilians killed. The Daily Times of Pakistan reports the fighting around Kandahar City, which was initiated by two separate Coalition operations, resulted in an estimated 100 Taliban killed. The U.S. military reported up to 60 Taliban were killed in the fighting at Musa Qala, where the Afghan security forces thwarted a major Taliban assault.
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Pakistan’s Taliban Insurgency; Four Mid-Level al Qaeda Operatives and Taliban Commanders killed in Past Week
Clashes between Pakistani security forces and al Qaeda and the Taliban continue in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. Yesterday, the Pakistani Army hit “suspected Taliban hideouts” with artillery barrages and helicopter strikes after security outposts in North Waziristan came under attack from Taliban fighters. Today in North Waziristan, “a paramilitary trooper and three tribesmen were killed on Sunday in a shoot-out in a restive Pakistani tribal region, as authorities tried to enforce a ban on carrying arms.”
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The Taliban Consolidates Power in Pakistan as Violence Increases in Afghanistan
Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas Yesterday’s rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force compound in Kabul, Afghanistan highlights the increased level of violence throughout the country. Coalition and Afghan troop have seen a marked increase in suicide bombings, IED (roadside bombing) attacks and platoon and company-sized attacks from Taliban fighters over the past year. The Taliban’s latest springtime offensive is now in full swing.
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The Waziristan Problem
A recent upsurge in violence in Pakistan’s tribal regions (or Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province) is a cause for great concern for the United States and her allies in the War on Terror. In the past, Pakistani forces conducted several offensives in the region, with mixed results. The tribal area of North Waziristan has seen an increase in clashes between Pakistani forces and pro al Qaeda and Taliban forces. A rocket attack against a Pakistani outpost in Sarbandji village near the town of Miran Shah killed seven Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan claims fourteen “terrorists were killed when…
