| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Militant gains in Pakistan draw fighters from abroad |
| 2008-08-11 |
| The American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have travelled to Pakistan's Tribal Areas to join with militants there, according to a report published in The New York Times on Sunday. The American officials say the influx shows a further strengthening of the position of Al Qaeda in the Tribal Areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban. Fighters: According to the American officials, many of the fighters making their way to the Tribal Areas are Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Persian Gulf states. The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has dropped to fewer than 40 a month from as many as 110 a month a year ago, a military spokesman in Baghdad said on Wednesday. "The sanctuary situation in Pakistan's Tribal Areas and the NWFP is more, rather than less, troublesome than before," Gen David D McKiernan, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview. "The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border." Flights: Some of the foreign militants take commercial flights into Pakistan and make their way to the Tribal Areas by car or bus, while a smaller, undetermined number go overland through Iran and then up through Balochistan, the Defence Department official said. McKiernan said, "There are noticeably more non-Pashtun-speaking fighters than this time last year." "The ability of the Taliban to cross that border and not being under any pressure from the Pakistani side of the border is clearly a concern," Defence Secretary Robert M Gates told reporters two weeks ago in one of his most pointed comments to date on the situation. "That's the area that needs to be addressed with the Pakistani government." The Bush administration is struggling to work with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to find an effective combination of political, diplomatic and military tools to help stem the increasingly entrenched insurgency, but it has faced difficulties dealing with Pakistan's new coalition government, officials say. American options for strikes inside the Tribal Areas are limited. The CIA has armed, remotely piloted Predator aircraft ready if high-level insurgents are located. But a Pentagon order authorising an increased campaign by the Special Operations forces in the Tribal Areas remains under review by administration officials. President Bush's new homeland security adviser, Kenneth L Wainstein, travelled to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait last month, and urged leaders in those countries to help crack down on groups that are helping to finance the insurgency in the Tribal Areas. |
| Posted by:Fred |