About 20 trucks have been destroyed in a rocket attack on a NATO trucking terminal in southwest Pakistan supplying troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
A number of oil tankers and goods trucks were parked in the temporary terminal in Quetta after Pakistan shut down supply lines for NATO forces in anger at a deadly cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Senior police official Malik Arshad said on Thursday unknown gunmen fired bullets and a rocket at the NATO oil tankers and the ensuing blaze engulfed about 20 vehicles in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
"We do not know about any casualties yet because the blaze is so huge," Arshad said.
"First the fire started in two oil tankers and the fuel started leaking, which spread the fire to other vehicles," Arshad said.
"Fire brigade and emergency services were called in immediately after the attack," he said.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
[Dawn] Pak President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... is in Dubai for treatment for a heart condition, the government said on Wednesday, with one source saying he had suffered a minor heart attack and fuelling speculation that the leader may resign.
The statement from the prime minister's office said Zardari went to a Dubai hospital at the insistence of his children, who live there. It contradicted earlier reports from Zardari's own office that the tests were scheduled and routine.
"The president went to Dubai following symptoms related to his pre-existing heart condition," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... 's media office said.
"The president will remain under observation and return to resume his normal functions as advised by the doctors."
A presidential front man later quoted Zardari's doctor as saying his condition was stable.
A Pak source in Dubai familiar with the 56-year-old president's condition told Rooters that he had suffered a minor heart attack.
"Two days ago, he had chest pain" and decided to go to Dubai, the source said.
Six years ago, Zardari had also had a minor heart attack, the source said. "Since then, he has been on medication."
"He had a minor heart attack on Tuesday. He flew to Dubai where he had an angioplasty. He's in good health now," Mustafa Khokhar, adviser to the prime minister on human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... who sits in the cabinet also told AFP.
"There's no question of any resignation," he added.
A Dubai-based member of Zardari's Pakistain People's Party (PPP), Mian Muneer Hans, said the president landed in Dubai around 7:30 pm on Tuesday.
"He walked to his car in the airport and was not on any ambulance," said Hans, adding that he was accompanied by his doctor and petroleum minister Asim Hussain. Zardari was taken straight to the American Hospital in Dubai, said Hans.
"He's taking rest in the hospital now. He may be there for two to three days," he added.
The hospital's chief executive officer Thomas Murray, contacted by Rooters, declined to comment on the reports.
The rumours about his health and possible resignation swirled on Twitter and other social media.
"Some elements blew up this to create unrest in the country," said Fauzia Wahab, a senior member of the PPP. "His visit to Dubai and having a medical check up is perfectly normal."
Zardari was due to address parliament this week after the Supreme Court admitted an opposition leader's petition demanding a judicial inquiry into the memo issue, including any role played by Zardari. That address has now been postponed.
If he were to leave office, he would become vulnerable to long-standing corruption charges in Pakistain by losing his legal immunity as a head of state.
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12/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
You're only the Great Satan until the heart attack strikes.
[Dawn] A US magazine on Wednesday claimed that President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... who had gone to Dubai for medical check-up may have angioplasty on Wednesday and he may resign from his office on account of "ill health", DawnNews reported.
A former US government official told The Cable that Washington was informed that Zardari had a 'minor heart attack' on Monday night and he flew to Dubai via air ambulance.
The report posted on the website of foreign policy magazine further claimed that Zardari was 'incoherent' during his telephonic conversation with President Barack My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it Obama which took place over the weekend regarding the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... air strikes.
"The noose was getting tighter --it was only a matter of time," the former official said, expressing the growing expectation inside the US government that Zardari may be on the way out.
Senior analyst Shuja Nawaz told The Cable that "this is the 'in-house change option' that has been talked about."
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[Pak Daily Times] At least seven aircraft landed at the Shamsi air base on Wednesday to airlift personnel and equipment out of Pakistain.
According to sources in the Washuk district, American officials were likely to vacate the airbase on Thursday.
"Seven aircraft have landed here since morning," a local confirmed, adding, "They also set several containers on fire today and we saw its thick flames rising."
The United States is evacuating the Shamsi air base following orders from the military incensed by a deadly NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... raid on the border that left 24 soldiers dead, officials said. The deadline for the removal of all US personnel and equipment from the base in the remote southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... was set for December 11.
"They are evacuating the base, evacuation is in the process," confirmed a senior Pak government official in Islamabad.
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[Pak Daily Times] Three security personnel were maimed and three shops were damaged when unidentified snuffies fired rockets at Hangu Bazar on Tuesday, sources said. According to details, the snuffies fired six rockets from an unidentified location, which landed at main bazaar injuring three security personnel and damaging three houses and a shop. The injured were identified as Frontier Corps Quresh Karim, and a soldier of Elite Force.
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[Pak Daily Times] Launching a search operation after recovery of two bombs near imamargah Haideriah, district police have tossed in the slammer 28 suspects on Wednesday. According to police, a search operation was launched in various areas of the district to arrest the culprits involved in planting two remote control bombs near the Imam bargah in Bikat Gunj Bazaar. District police informed that a large-scale terrorism bid has been averted by recovering the bombs, placed near imambargah Haideriah on 9th Muharram. According to DPO Dr Zeeshan, unidentified cut-throats had planted two bombs near the imambargah in wee hours to target the mourners and police. The DPO said cut-throats wanted to gather police by blasting the two kg bomb at the site while the other seven kg bomb was meant to inflict maximum damage on police force. He commended the role of local people who timely informed the police about presence of bombs. During the crackdown, the police tossed in the slammer 28 suspects and recovered arms and narcotics from their possession.
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[An Nahar] The United States on Wednesday urged greater action by Pakistain against a Sunni Mohammedan krazed killer group that Afghanistan blamed for an unprecedented massacre against its Shiite minority.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said that the banned Pak Death Eater movement Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... orchestrated the bloodshed Tuesday on the Shiite holy day of Ashura.
Fifty-five people were killed in Kabul and another four in a similar attack in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
State Department front man Mark Toner said the United States did not know the full details of the attacks but that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Hamilton Fish ... had Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in mind when she urged Pakistain to act against faceless myrmidons during an October visit to Islamabad.
"It's precisely the kind of organization that the Secretary was trying to address when she went to Pakistain in calling for Pakistain to do more to combat this kind of Death Eater terrorist activity within its own borders," Toner told news hounds.
Pointing out that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been blamed for attacks in Pakistain as well, Toner said: "It's clearly a threat to both countries."
"It's just too important, the threat we face. There needs to be ongoing, sustained and even increased cooperation and coordination between Afghanistan (and) Pakistain and certainly with the international community," Toner said.
Toner also confirmed that one U.S. citizen was among the dead in Kabul. He said that the American was a civilian and not linked to the U.S. government but declined further details, saying the family had requested privacy.
Karzai on Wednesday vowed to press Pakistain to take action against the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, potentially raising fresh tensions between the neighbors days after Pakistain boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan.
Pakistain asked Afghanistan to share any evidence pointing to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Mohammedan Death Eater movement that was banned in 2001 by then military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf. ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Asif Ali 
Asif Ali 
[Pak Daily Times] At least seven aircraft landed at the Shamsi air base on Wednesday to airlift personnel and equipment out of Pakistain.
Hillary Clinton
Toner also confirmed that one U.S. citizen was among the dead in Kabul. He said that the American was a civilian and not linked to the U.S. government but declined further details, saying the family had requested privacy.
