[Dawn] Four Afghan children and a woman were killed on Monday when the vehicle they were travelling in hit a roadside kaboom in the country's troubled south, police said.
Six other people were also injured when the blast tore apart a minivan in the volatile Chora district of Uruzgan province.
Farid Ail, a front man for Uruzgan's police chief, said: "Five non-combatants were killed -- four children and one woman -- and six others maimed, one woman, two children and three men."
Roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban-led snuffies fighting a decade-long war against NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... -led foreign troops and Afghan government forces.
There are around 140,000 international troops, mainly from the United States, in Afghanistan helping government forces combat the insurgency.
According to the UN, the number of civilians killed in violence in Afghanistan rose by 15 per cent in the first six months of this year to 1,462, with snuffies blamed for 80 percent of the killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Suffer the little children...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/06/2011 10:45 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Seven persons including a security man were maimed in two different incidents in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Sunday.
Officials said that security forces clashed with cut-throats when their convoy came under attack in Malikdin Khel area. Both sides used heavy weapons against each other, resulting in injuries to one security man. The festivities continued till Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pond, the radioactive tadpoles grown into frogs. Really big frogs, in fact... six persons including three women and three children of a family received injuries when a mortar shell hit a house in Akkakhel area.
In another incident, unidentified persons blew up an under-construction house of a transporter in Sado Khel area of Landi Kotal on Sunday.
Sources said that Sartaj, the owner of the house, was a supplier of fuel to NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in Afghanistan. He was receiving threats from local bad boy groups, they added.
They said that four rooms of his residence were destroyed when the explosives planted at the house went off around midnight.
In North Wazoo Agency, security forces recovered six remote controlled bombs, planted along the main road near Mirali. The bombs were defused safely.
Sources said that security forces were moving from Bannu to Miramshah, the agency headquarters, when the officials spotted the IEDs.
Security forces cordoned off the area and blocked the road to defuse the bombs. The security forces also resorted to firing in the air on the occasion.
Three helicopters were also called to the area to provide air cover to the security personnel.
The political administration also imposed curfew in Miramshah, Mirali, Dosali and Razmak from 6am on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Battered by military operations and US drone strikes, the once-formidable Pak Taliban have splintered into more than 100 smaller factions, according to security officials, analysts and rustics from the orc heartland.
The group, allied with Al Qaeda and based in the northwest close to the Afghan border, has been behind much of the violence tearing apart Pakistain over the last four years. Known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain, or TTP, the Taliban want to oust the US-backed government and install a hard-line Islamist regime. They also have international ambitions and trained the Pak-American who tried to detonate a car boom in New York City's Times Square in 2010.
"Today, the command structure of the TTP is splintered, weak and divided and they are running out of money," said Mansur Mahsud, a senior researcher at the Fata (Federally Administered Tribal Area) Research Centre. "In the bigger picture, this helps the army and the government because the Taliban are now divided."
The first signs of cracks within the Taliban appeared after their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone strike in August 2009, Mahsud said. Since then, the group has steadily deteriorated.
Set up in 2007, the TTP is an umbrella organization created to represent roughly 40 groups in the tribal belt plus Al Qaeda-linked groups headquartered in Punjab province.
"In different areas, leaders are making their own peace talks with the government," Mahsud added. "It could help the Pak government and military separate more leaders from the TTP and more foot soldiers from their commanders."
The two biggest factors hammering away at the Taliban's unity are US drone strikes and Mighty Pak Army operations in the tribal region.
Turf wars have flared as Orcs and similar vermin fleeing the military operations have moved into territory controlled by other orcs, sometimes sparking festivities between groups. And as leaders have been killed either by drones or the army, lieutenants have fought among themselves over who will replace them.
"The disintegration... has accelerated with the Pakistain military operation in South Wazoo and the drone attacks by the United States in North Waziristan," Mahsud said, referring to the two tribal agencies that are the heartland of the Pak Taliban.
Another factor is the divide-and-conquer strategy the military has long employed in its dealings with orcs. Commanders have broken away from the TTP and set up their own factions, weakening the organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Minister for Interior Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. Monday said that the United States government must take action against Mansoor Ijaz for violating US laws and issuing false statements against the armed forces and against Pakistain's leadership.
Regarding Ijaz's statements of the country's leadership and Haqqani's knowledge of the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... operation, Malik said the US had itself admitted that the Pak government and Haqqani were not aware of the operation so the US must take action against Ijaz for giving false statements.
"Pakistain has always been asked to do more but it is time for the US to take action against the person who is violating its laws by misguiding the international community," Malik told media representatives after a meeting at the Interior Ministry on the law and order situation during Muharram.
All the information related to Ijaz has been collected and the Interpol would be approached for further investigation.
Malik said that from the very beginning Ijaz has been changing his stance on the issue.
Malik asked the Pakistain Moslem League -- Nawaz (PML-N) to approach the Supreme Court against Ijaz and said the government would extend its support in the matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The principal character in the memogate scandal, Mansoor Ijaz, has said that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is under nobody's control and always keeps its hand in politics.
In an interview with CNN host Fareed Zakaria, Mr Ijaz said: "The ISI has two critical branches in it. One is called CT, for counter-terrorism, and the other one is called S Branch for strategic --it's sort of the arm of the ISI that does everything from political interventions in other countries, for example, Afghanistan, which is what they're doing through the Haqqani network and the Taliban right now."
He said the ISI was an organ of the state that nobody could control. "And it is essentially the organ of the state that the army and the intelligence wings are using to, shall we say, coordinate or obstruct what it is that the political side of the government, the civilian side of the governments do in Pakistain," he said.
Mr Ijaz said the ISI does a lot of political interventions in its own country as it has been reported in the past by Pak press that S Branch was involved in manipulating elections and doing things of that nature inside Pakistain.
"Now, there have been so many wrong things that have happened since the death of Bin Laden in the early part of May, so many things that indicated some hidden hand, if you will, in what was going on," Mr Ijaz said.
Mansoor Ijaz, who claimed himself a 'messenger' for a memo from Pakistain's civilian government to the Pentagon asking Washington to clamp down on Pakistain's military, said he had been involved in different operations in Pakistain now for a very long time. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... he did not mention that what kind of operations these were.
He claimed that he had helped former prime minister Benazir Bhutto come back together with the Clinton administration as a part of the larger Pak-American community. "I was deeply involved in trying to broker a ceasefire in Kashmire," he said.
Blaming the ISI for interfering in the country's politics, he said he found out in almost every single case that there was a political motivation and a political interference by the ISI.
"It is my view, and it is still my view today that Section S of the ISI has been involved in some very, very nefarious activities.
And so since nobody was able to get their arms around that, the United States had to take the lead on that," he said.
"The United States has done this in Iran. They've done it in other countries where they've labelled certain organizations as terrorists. And it had a material impact in terms of how both US policy as well as other country's policies were formulated to handle the problems in those countries then," he added.
By bringing the issue of memogate into limelight Mansoor Ijaz claimed that he had helped civilian government in Pakistain.
"We have strengthened Pakistain. Maybe we haven't strengthened the civilian side of Pakistain's government. But there may have been a rot there that needs to be cleaned up. And if that rot is cleaned out, you might find a very strong Pakistain emanating out of this, in which the judiciary does what it's supposed to, the military does what it's supposed to," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Even the Pakis now admit the TRUE enemy in Afghanistan is the Pak Army/ISI from Generals Kayani and Pasha downwards who should be up in International Court for ordering the killing of US/Nato Troops!
Posted by: Paul D ||
12/06/2011 15:40 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Militants fired two rocket-propelled grenades at a shop in the main market of the northwestern town of Kohat, killing two people, including a policeman, and injuring eight others, police officials said.
Police in the area are on high alert to prevent sectarian attacks against Shi'ite Mohammedans, who are holding processions to mark Ashura, the most significant event in their calendar.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain wants to rebuild its ties with the United States despite ongoing retaliation over deadly NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... air strikes on its troops along the Afghan border, the country's prime minister said on Monday, stressing that he believes "it won't take long" to achieve a new relationship with its uneasy ally.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... remarks indicate that Pakistain is looking for a way to restore some normality to ties with Washington following the November 26 air strikes by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, but wants to leverage the situation to try and reset the relationship in ways more beneficial to Pakistain.
In an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, Gilani also said the country remained committed to working with Afghanistan to bring jihad boy leaders -- many of whom are believed to be on Pak soil and to enjoy close relations with Islamabad's security forces -- into talks with the government and allow the US to begin withdrawing its troops as it is committed to doing.
"I think we have evolved some mechanisms, and we are ready to cooperate," he said, referring to meetings with Afghanistan's military and intelligence chiefs on a framework for talks. "We are committed (to reconciliation), despite that we are not attending" the conference on Afghanistan, he said.
That may offer some reassurance to international leaders meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of Afghanistan.
Islamabad boycotted the talks because of the air strikes along the Pakistain-Afghan border that killed 24 Pak troops. The decision disappointed Afghan and Western leaders, who realize the vital role Pakistain has in any future stability in neighbouring Afghanistan even as they complain that it tolerates, or even supports, gunnies along the border.
Pakistain refused pleas by Afghan and US leaders to attend the Bonn conference. Gilani said he did not regret skipping the meeting, saying "since the soil of Afghanistan was used against Pakistain in the NATO raids, there was a tremendous protest in my country and people were putting pressure that we not attend."
Speaking in Germany, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ... called the deaths of the Pak soldiers tragic and reiterated a pledge for a thorough investigation. "No one is more interested than the United States in getting to the bottom of what happened in the border incident," she said.
President Barack In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed Obama called Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Sunday to offer his condolences. No one from either NATO or the US has formally apologised, but they have disputed comments by Pakistain's army that the act was a deliberate act of aggression.
Gilani said new ties being negotiated with the US would ensure that the two countries "respected each other's red lines" regarding illusory sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border. While he gave few details, he made it clear he thought this was both desirable and possible.
"We really want to have good relations with the US based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters," he said in an interview at his residence. "I think that is doable. I think that it won't take long."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] US Ambassador to Pakistain Cameron Munter on Monday said that the United States would ensure there is no repetition of the incidents like the Salala attack, in which 24 Pak soldiers bit the dust.
In an interview with Pak state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, the ambassador said there was a mechanism in place on both sides of the border to prevent such things but the fact that it did happen, indicates a failure of that mechanism.
He added that, based on the findings of the inquiry under way, the United States would take steps to ensure such incidents do not recur in future.
Mr Munter, however, pointed out that for this to happen both Pakistain and the United States will have to remain engaged and talk to each other.
The US wants restoration of the bilateral relationship to its previous level, said the ambassador.
When his attention was drawn to previous inquiries in similar attacks that produced no tangible results, the US Ambassador said his country requested Pakistain to join investigation of the incident, but Pakistain has decided not to join it.
He said when result of the inquiry would be known within a few weeks, they will share it with Pakistain.
When asked to comment on Pakistain's oft-repeated stance that it wanted new rules of engagement, Munter said the two sides should talk to each other at different levels. There is a need for leaders to remain engaged and there should be interaction between militaries, intelligence agencies and economic experts, he added.
He said the United States wants Pakistain to succeed and is ready to provide any kind of cooperation for the purpose.
Replying to a question about perception in Pakistain that the country should come out of the war on terror, he said as far as Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency attack is concerned, "we understand the concerns of people of Pakistain as it was a terrible tragedy."
About broader question of war against terror, he said: "Both were facing bad boys. This is not just America's war but people of Pakistain are also threatened by terrorists."
He said Pakistain, Afghanistan and the United States should work together to eliminate this threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
See also BIGNEWS NETWORK > PAKISTAN SUPPORTS [Afghan] TALIBAN DREADING PRO-INDIA KABUL: EX-CIA ANLYST [Bruce Reidel].
Will Sunni Pak have the same fears as per Rising Shia Iran + Iran's ASIAN interests, which by definition may one day come to compete head-on wid Pakistan's own interests???
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Wazoo
Punjab
Pakistain wants to rebuild its ties with the United States despite ongoing retaliation over deadly 
Asif Ali 
US Ambassador to Pakistain Cameron Munter on Monday said that the United States would ensure there is no repetition of the incidents like the Salala attack, in which 24 Pak soldiers 
Mohmand
