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| India-Pakistan |
| US calls for Pakistan action against Haqqani network |
| 2010-06-18 |
| [Dawn] The United States has presented evidence to Pakistan that a militant faction aligned with the Taliban and based in Pakistan orchestrated brazen attacks last month in Afghanistan, a top general said on Wednesday. The United States has long pressed the Pakistani military to crack down on the so-called Haqqani faction in the North Waziristan tribal region, which borders Afghanistan, but Islamabad has so far balked at doing so. General David Petraeus, who oversees the Afghan war as head of US Central Command, told a Senate hearing that he, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff raised Haqqani links in a recent meeting with Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Kayani. "We have shared information with him about links of the leadership of the Haqqani network located in North Waziristan that clearly commanded and controlled the operation against Bagram air base and the attack in Kabul, among others," Petraeus said. Suicide bombers carrying rockets and grenades launched a brazen predawn attack on the base on May 19, killing an American contractor and wounding nine US troops. About a dozen militants, many wearing suicide vests packed with explosives, were killed, the Pentagon said at the time. A day earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy in Kabul, killing 12 Afghan civilians and six foreign troops. Bagram is the main base for the US-led troops in Afghanistan, with the largest airfield in the country. It was used by the former Soviet Union during its invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Pentagon has expressed confidence that Pakistan will eventually mount an offensive in North Waziristan, but said Islamabad would decide on the timing. The Haqqani network has long been described by US forces as one of their biggest enemies in Afghanistan. But analysts say there are strategic reasons for Pakistan's hesitancy to attack the Haqqanis. Pakistan allegedly sees the group as a strategic asset that will give it influence in any peace settlement in Afghanistan so Islamabad will want those militants on its side. The United States has increased pressure on Pakistan to act in North Waziristan following a botched May 1 car-bombing in New York's Time Square that US investigators have blamed on the Pakistani Taliban. But Pentagon officials have said they understood the Pakistani military was already stretched by operations in other tribal areas. Regarding the Haqqani network, the New York Times reported on Wednesday reportd that the group has formed an alliance with the Lashkar-i-Taiba and has used LT militants for carrying out operations in Afghanistan. The report claimed that the Haqqani network maintains a sophisticated insurgent network that stretches from Pakistan's North Waziristan agency, through the south-eastern provinces of Afghanistan, all the way to Kabul. The expansion of this network from Afghanistan's southeast to Kabul has provided the Haqqanis with the ability to stage spectacular suicide attacks in the city. The report also claimed that militant outfits like LT, Al-Qaeda and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan have increased their cooperation with each other and with the Haqqanis over the past several years. According to the NYT, the Haqqani network is using LT militants in six to eight provinces in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, officials in Islamabad told journalists on Tuesday that Pakistan is trying to mediate a deal between the Haqqani network and the Hamid Karzai government, in an apparent effort to have a major say in the country's set-up after US troops withdraw in 2011. Pakistan has entered the reconciliation process in Afghanistan by taking on the task of acting as a bridge between the network of militant commander Sirajuddin Haqqani and the government in Kabul, the officials said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Paks wont act against their assets/foreign policy! |
| Posted by: Paul2 2010-06-18 09:19 |