KABUL (AP) – The arrests of top Taliban figures in Pakistan abruptly halted secret U.N. contacts with the insurgency at a time when the efforts were gathering momentum, the U.N.’s former envoy to Afghanistan said Friday.

Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat who just stepped down from the U.N. post here in the Afghan capital, said the discussions that he and others from the U.N. had with senior Taliban members began in the spring of 2009 and included face-to-face conversations in Dubai and elsewhere. He criticized Pakistan for arresting the Taliban’s No. 2 and other members of the insurgency, saying the Pakistanis surely knew the roles these figures had in efforts to find a political resolution to the 8-year-old war. Pakistan denies the arrests were linked to reconciliation talks.

“There was an increase in intensity of contacts, but this process came to a halt following the arrests that took place in Pakistan,” Eide told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home outside Oslo.

Last month’s detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second in the Taliban only to Mullah Mohammed Omar, infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of Karzai’s advisers told the AP. Besides the ongoing talks, the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, said Baradar had “given a green light” to participating in a three-day peace “jirga” or conference that Karzai is hosting next month.

However, Gen. Athar Abbas, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said Friday that Baradar’s arrest, which he said was a joint operation with the U.S., was not connected to any peace talks. “Reconciliation or talks have nothing to do with the arrest of Baradar,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the talks. Serious arrests are being made continuously.”

The Obama administration has said it supports efforts to welcome back any militants who renounce violence, cut ties with Al Qaeda and recognize and respect the Afghan constitution.

During a visit to Afghanistan last week, however, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it was premature to expect senior members of the Taliban to reconcile with the government and until the insurgents believe they can’t win the war, they won’t come to the table.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said she’s highly skeptical that Taliban leaders will be willing to renounce violence.

But Britain’s foreign secretary said the Afgan government should aggressively pursue a political settlement while the U.S.-led military surge is putting pressure on the Taliban.

David Miliband said in a speech at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this month that a political settlement needs the support of Afghanistan’s neighbors and should include “those parts of the insurgency willing permanently to sever ties with Al Qaeda” and abandon armed struggle.

Eide, whose comments were first reported on Friday by the BBC, said there was a lull in contacts between the U.N. and the insurgents around last summer’s Afghan presidential election, but then they intensified.

“It’s quite clear that the level of contact was increasing over the last few months to one point and that’s when you had the number of arrests in Pakistan,” he said. Eide said there were many channels of communication with the Taliban, including those involving Karzai’s representative. Eide said the negotiations must be led by the Afghans, but that contacts have been made by other parties. “I know many have tried,” he said, declining to identify those who have reached out to the Taliban.

Eide said the U.N. had met senior figures in the Taliban leadership as well as people who have the authority from the Quetta Shura to engage in such discussions. Named after a city in Pakistan, the Quetta Shura is the ruling council of the Taliban. He said he believed that the talks, which he said were still in the early stages, could not have taken place without the blessing of Omar, the Taliban leader. “I cannot say with certainty, but I’m pretty sure,” Eide said. “I find it hard to believe that these contacts could take place without his knowledge.”

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Islamabad cites concerns detainees may be freed or transferred to US custody, though broader geopolitics may also be at play.

Pakistan is refusing to hand over captured Taliban leaders to Afghanistan on the grounds that they could be released or transferred to the US, according to officials familiar with the negotiations.

The refusal to extradite Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy leader and military commander , together with several regional insurgent commanders seized by Pakistani forces in recent weeks, has deepened uncertainty over Islamabad’s motives.

“Pakistan has not yet made a decision on whether it is ready to enter into comprehensive peace talks on Afghanistan. There’s a big debate going on inside the Pakistani leadership and it has not yet been resolved,” a senior western official said.

Mediators involved in back-channel talks with the Taliban have told the Guardian that Baradar took part in the dialogue and appeared interested in a negotiated peace. There had been speculation that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency (ISI) had arrested Baradar in Karachi last month because of those talks, and because he had bypassed Pakistan.

However, according to officials in Washington and Islamabad, Baradar’s capture was a joint US-Pakistani operation triggered by intelligence provided by the Americans.

According to this account, Pakistan may not have had a choice over Baradar’s capture. But Islamabad has had a say over what happens to the Taliban leader and his fellow insurgent commanders now in Pakistani cells. The government rebuffed US requests for them to be transferred to American custody but had initially appeared open to an Afghan extradition request.

“When we receive a formal request from the Afghan government, we will honour it,” Rehman Malik, the interior minister, said in February.

That door now appears to have been shut.

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WASHINGTON — An Al Qaeda leader believed to have played a key role in the bombing of a CIA post in Afghanistan last December was apparently killed by an American missile strike last week, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

You can read a lot more about this bad guy at The Long War Journal also.

The counterterrorism official said Hussein al-Yemeni was believed killed in a strike in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

Drone strikes in Pakistan’s border region, largely conducted by the CIA, have escalated in recent months, proving an effective way to target Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders hiding in the rugged mountainous border. While Pakistani officials have criticized the strikes, it is widely believed that Islamabad privately supports the attacks and works with the U.S. to provide intelligence.

Al-Qaeda flag

“Those operations are seriously disrupting Al Qaeda,” Panetta told The Washington Post in an interview. “It’s pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling. And that we really do have them on the run.”

Al-Yemeni is considered an important Al Qaeda planner and explosives expert who had established contact with groups ranging from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militant groups. He is also known as Ghazwan al-Yemeni.

The counterterrorism official said al-Yemeni was in his late 20s or early 30s and was a conduit in Pakistan for funds, messages, and recruiting but that he specialized in suicide operations.

A jihadist Web site linked to Al Qaeda recently announced his death, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who now is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center.

“This is another sign that drone operations and stepped-up efforts against Al Qaeda are having an impact in the tribal regions,” Riedel said Wednesday. He said al-Yemeni served prison time in Yemen in 2005 before being released and has since moved through Afghanistan and Iran and was a trainer for the Taliban.

In the CIA base attack, a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer. The bomber, a Jordanian doctor identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, detonated his cache of explosives at Camp Chapman, a tightly secured base in Khost.

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AP
March 17th, 2010

The US launched two new airstrikes in Pakistan’s Taliban controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, just one day after killing 11 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in a strike in the same region.

Unmanned US Predators and Reapers struck in the villages of Hamzoni and Datta Khel today, killing eight Taliban fighters.

In the first strike, the US aircraft fired five missiles at two vehicles transporting “militants” in the village of Hamzoni, Gen News reported. Five fighters were reported killed in the attack.

In the second strike, US aircraft fired two missiles at a compound in Datta Khel. Three terrorists were killed in the attack. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in either attack at this time.

Both strikes took place in regions administered by North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Al Qaeda and allied Pakistani and Central Asian jihadi groups shelter in Bahadar’s tribal areas, and they also run training camps and safe houses in the region. The Pakistani military has indicated it has no plans to take on Bahadar or the Haqqani Network, a deadly Taliban group that is closely allied with al Qaeda and is also based in North Waziristan.

The US has launched three airstrikes inside Pakistan in two days. Yesterday’s attack also took place in Datta Khel. Five missiles were fired on a compound, killing 11 terrorists, mostly “Arabs” according to reports.

Arab fighters from al Qaeda were seen establishing a three kilometer cordon around yesterday’s attack site in Datta Khel. The large number of Arabs seen around the attack site indicates that a high value target may have been present.

The Arab al Qaeda fighters establishing the cordon after yesterday’s strike in Datta Khel could be from the Black Guard, praetorians use to guard al Qaeda’s top leaders, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, or Sheikh Saeed al Masri. The Arabs also could be from the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, al Qaeda’s military force.

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By Bill Roggio – The Long War Journal
March 17th, 2010

An ongoing Pakistani effort to delay the issuance of visas to U.S. diplomatic and military personnel is impeding the U.S. special operations mission to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, according to several U.S. sources.

The difficulty obtaining visas led to some special ops troops having their deployments to Pakistan extended and others being sent back to the country early simply because their visas were still valid, U.S. sources said. For the Special Forces troops at the heart of the mission, the visa issue has become critical. “It’s huge,” said a special operations source. “It’s everything. They can’t do their mission without the visa.”

Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

However, the Defense official said, the visa hassles have to be seen in a wider context of greater Pakistani commitment and sacrifice in the fight against Islamist extremists during the last few years.

In 2006, the Defense official said, “it was a big deal” when the U.S. sent a team in to survey the Frontier Corps, a locally recruited paramilitary militia in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. “You fast forward now to 2010, you’ve got 140,000 Pakmil troops in the tribal areas — seven divisions. They’re conducting major operations in southern Waziristan, Bajaur Agency, Swat and so forth, and we have actual American trainers on the ground in Pakistan. … So I can’t explain why the Paks are so slow on these visas, but what I do see over the last four years is tremendous progress in terms of where we’ve come.”

The mission to train the Frontier Corps began in 2008 and involves roughly 100 troops, according to two U.S. sources. It is led by a colonel with a small headquarters staff based in Islamabad, a field-grade Special Forces officer familiar with the mission said. Under that colonel, but positioned closer to the action in the tribal areas, is a Special Forces company, or B team, which in turn controls three or four 12-man A teams plus non-Special Forces attachments such as civil affairs and psychological operations personnel, he said. Those teams are on deployments that last about six months.

Another A team is usually in country on a shorter deployment cycle, working with the Frontier Corps at a base farther in the rear on Joint Combined Exchange Training mission, he said.

A deadly mission

The mission to train the Frontier Corps, which has so far been conducted mainly by 3rd Special Forces Group (the current teams in country are from that group’s 2nd Battalion), hit the headlines Feb. 3, when three special operations soldiers died in a bomb blast in the Lower Dir district of the Northwest Frontier province. Killed were Sgt. 1st Class David Hartman and Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Sluss-Tiller of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade; and Staff Sgt. Mark Stets from the 8th Psychological Operations Battalion, 4th Psychological Operations Group. Maj. Rob Pickel, commander of the 3rd Special Forces Group company handling the Frontier Corps training mission at the time, and Pickel’s company sergeant major were also badly wounded in the explosion.

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By Sean D. Naylor
March 15th, 2010

Homicide Attack At Security Checkpoint In Pakistan Kills 13
March 13, 2010
(AP) FoxNews.com

ISLAMABAD — A homicide bomber driving a motorized rickshaw blew himself up at a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials said, killing at least 13 people, injuring 52 and underscoring the nation’s relentless security threat.

The blast in the small town of Saidu Sharif in Pakistan’s violence-battered Swat Valley was the second major attack in the country in less than 24 hours, raising fears of a new wave of violence by anti-government militants. Homicide bombers killed 55 people in near-simultaneous blasts Friday in the eastern city of Lahore.

March 13: An injured victim walks away from a burning vehicle at the site of homicide bombing in Pakistan.

No one claimed has responsibility for either attack, though suspicion quickly fell on the loose network of Islamist insurgents who have been laying siege to the U.S.-allied Islamabad government for years and who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days.

Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, said Saturday’s attack killed 13 people, including two soldiers and two policemen.

“Such acts cannot demoralize us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated,” he said.

The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police Saturday morning in Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of Swat, said police official Qazi Farooq. The explosion sparked panic in the neighborhood, as soldiers in battle gear carried the victims — injured and dead — through the narrow streets to get them help.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Zia-ur-Rehman said he was traveling in another rickshaw when the blast shook the street and violently jolted his vehicle.

“I thought somebody picked me up and then threw me down,” said the 24-year-old, who was covered with cuts and bruises. “Everybody was crying.”

The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taliban, who at the time controlled much of the valley.

The military took back control of the valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.

In Lahore, meanwhile, funerals were being held Saturday for the dozens of people killed the day before.

Police official Chaudhry Shafique said the death toll from that attack rose to 55 Saturday after 12 more people died overnight. About 100 people were wounded.

That attack occurred when two homicide bombers on foot set off their explosives within seconds of each other near two trucks carrying soldiers on patrol in RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood with numerous military buildings. About 10 of those killed were soldiers, said police Chief Parvaiz Rathore.

The militants — a network of Pakistani Taliban, Al Qaeda and affiliated smaller groups — have been fighting to destabilize the Islamabad government for years. They launched a bloody wave of bombings last fall across Pakistan, leaving 600 people dead in near-daily attacks in apparent retaliation for an army offensive against the insurgents’ main stronghold, in the tribal region of South Waziristan along the Afghan border.

The government offensive was seen as fairly effective, forcing many Taliban leaders to flee and reducing the area where the insurgents could operate openly.

The insurgent attacks slowed early this year. In recent months, they have been smaller, farther apart and largely confined to remote regions near Afghanistan.

But in a sign that the militant network has not been broken — despite a string of recent arrests, regular U.S. missile attacks and last year’s offensive — violence has surged over the past week.

At least 88 people have been killed in the recent wave of bombings.

Third Bomb Hits Pakistan’s Lahore City
March 12, 2010
(AP) FoxNews.com

LAHORE, Pakistan — DEVELOPING: Pakistani news reports say another bomb has exploded in the eastern city of Lahore, hours after twin homicide bombings killed at least 43 people and wounded about 100.

The reports Friday said rescue workers have been dispatched to the scene and that casualties were feared.

It would be the third time this week that Lahore has been hit by a bomb attack.

March 12: Pakistani officials and soldiers visit the site of bombing in Lahore, Pakistan.

The attacks have shattered a period of relative calm in Pakistan, which has been battling Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Two women among six staff members killed, seven injured

MANSEHRA: Six staff members, including two women, were killed and seven others sustained injuries when over a dozen armed men wearing masks attacked the office of a non-governmental organisation in Oghi on Wednesday.

Police said that over a dozen militants attacked the World Vision office with guns and grenades in Oghi town in Mansehra, killing six staff members and injuring seven others. All of the victims were of Pakistani origin, they said.

An official of the World Vision, Muhammad Sajid, who was present in his office at that time, told reporters the gunmen made the staff members hostage in a hall and then dragged them to an adjacent room and killed them one by one. The gunmen also snatched cash, cell phones and other valuables from the hostages.

Before fleeing the scene, the masked militants detonated an explosive device, damaging the rented building occupied by the charity. According to the bomb disposal unit, about 10 kilograms of explosives were used in the explosion creating a four feet deep crater at the bombing location.

Those killed in the incident were identified as engineer Muhammad Ayaz (Swat), advocacy officer Muhammad Jamshed (Mardan), engineer Muhammad Fahim (Abbottabad), Liaqat Khan (Mansehra), Kehkashan Bibi (Abbottabad) and Zaryab Bibi (Mansehra).

The injured identified as Qazi Hamid, Muhammad Abid, Muhammad Sohail, Munir Ahmad, Imtiaz, Khushboo Bibi and Zahida Bibi were rushed to field hospital in Oghi wherefrom three critically injured were taken to the Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad. Those with minor wounds were discharged after first aid.

It was the second attack of its kind in Mansehra. Earlier, in February 2008, four aid workers of British-based group Plan International were killed in a similar gun and grenade attack in Mansehra.

World Vision has been working in the area since October 8, 2005 earthquake, which had killed about 73,000 people and left at least 3.5 million homeless. Sources said a search operation was launched in the area after the attack but no arrest was made till filing of this report.

Eyewitnesses said that some 15-armed militants disappeared into a mountainous area after the attack. They added that the militants were armed with Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and hand-grenades.

[REad more...]

March 11th, 2010

MIRANSHAH: Three missiles fired by a US drone killed five Taliban on Monday in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, security officials said.

“Five people have been killed and three wounded in the attack. It was an American drone attack,” an intelligence official said.

A security official in Peshawar confirmed the strike, saying the missiles hit militants gathered in a compound in the town, while residents said missiles struck two different buildings close to each other in the main bazaar.

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ISLAMABAD (AP) – A top Pakistani Taliban commander close to Al Qaeda is believed to have been killed in an army airstrike, officials said Saturday, in the latest apparent blow to insurgents who have attacked Pakistan and threatened U.S. forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was believed to be among some two dozen insurgents killed Friday at a sprawling compound in the northwest Mohmand tribal region, two intelligence officials said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said authorities had not identified the bodies of Mohammed or his fellow commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, but all the militants hiding at the site were killed after the helicopter gunships were dispatched on “real-time” intelligence.

“If Faqir Mohammed and Qari Ziaur Rehman are alive, then I will be surprised,” he told Pakistan’s Express news channel after receiving a briefing from the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record. They said they were confident of their information, but warned that the remote, dangerous nature of the region made it nearly impossible to offer a definitive confirmation at this stage. Pakistani Taliban spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mohammed was a deputy commander in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Pakistan’s Taliban Movement, leading the network’s operations in the Bajur and Mohmand tribal regions. He also was close to Al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who along with Osama bin Laden is suspected of using Pakistan’s tribal badlands as a hide-out.

The Pakistani Taliban have staged numerous attacks that have killed hundreds across Pakistan, and they are suspected to aid militants involved in attacks across the border in Afghanistan. The group is also a prime suspect in the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in eastern Afghanistan in late December.

Bajur and to some extent Mohmand have come under fierce assault by Pakistani army and paramilitary forces. Just days ago, a top general declared for the second time in a year that Bajur was cleared of militants.

Last year, after then-Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was reported killed in an August U.S. missile strike, Mohammed declared that he was taking over the group on a temporary basis. There were suggestions, however, that the move rankled others in the Pakistani Taliban, making Mohammed’s final status in the network somewhat murky after another militant, Hakimullah Mehsud, was selected as the heir to Baitullah.

If confirmed, Mohammed’s death would be the latest in a series of victories for Pakistan and the U.S. in the battle against Islamist extremists.

Over the past two months, Pakistan has captured several Afghan Taliban leaders hiding on its soil, intelligence officials have said. Among them is Mullah Baradar, the top deputy to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban’s supreme chief.

Pakistan also has waged multiple army offensives throughout the tribal belt, though it has avoided pushing into North Waziristan, the stronghold of several militant groups that have focused on defeating U.S. troops in Afghanistan rather than taking on the Pakistani state. The U.S. has relied heavily on missile strikes to take out targets in the tribal areas, often aiming for Al Qaeda operatives, but also broadening its targets to include Pakistani Taliban leaders.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces killed up to 30 Taliban fighters on Thursday in a counter-offensive after coming under attack in a volatile tribal area on the Afghan border, military officials said.

According to the FC sources, the extremists attacked Marjan-1 Check Post in Lakro tehsil of Mohmand Agency at 4am today, which was duly retaliated by the forces.

Militants killed one soldier and wounded four in an early morning attack on a military checkpost in Mohmand tribal region.

“During fighting, 25 to 30 terrorists were killed,” a military official told talking to a UK-based news agency.

There are at least ten bodies with the forces. The FC sources told that a group of ten extremists came from Bajaur; however, they were forced to flee as a result of forces’ action.

Another official said the bodies of five militants were in the custody of the security forces.

The clash erupted two days after Pakistan said it had cleared the Taliban and al Qaeda from nearby Bajaur region after nearly two years of fighting in the area.

Separately, the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary said it had killed 38 militants and arrested 18 in a week-long operation near the northwestern garrison town of Kohat.

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A top Pakistani general claimed recently that the Taliban have been driven from a region in the northwest that has served as an al Qaeda and Taliban haven for the past nine years.

The Taliban and al Qaeda have been defeated in the tribal agency Bajaur after a two-month-long offensive that began in January, according to Major General Tariq Khan, the commander of Pakistan’s Frontier Corps.

“The militant command and control centres and their caches have been dismantled or captured,” Khan told The Sunday Times.

“We have now cleared this area till the Afghan border, military operation is in its final stages and policing has been started,” Khan told Dawn.

Khan claimed that the Taliban in Bajaur have suffered significant casualties over the past two months, with 75 fighters killed and 76 detained, and another 364 fighters who surrendered. He also claimed that the Taliban have lost more than 2,200 fighters in combat in Bajaur since 2008, while the military have lost only 149 troops there.

The Taliban and al Qaeda were dug into a series of caves and ridges in the Damadola region in Bajaur, Khan told Dawn. He also declared that the Taliban leadership has been smashed in Bajaur and has fled.

“There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans killed in the operation,” Khan said. “Al Qaeda was there. They had occupied the ridges. There were 156 caves designed as a defensive complex.”

“Now their leadership does not exist. Twenty-five per cent of them have gone to Afghanistan, 15 per cent have gone back to Swat and other native areas,” Khan stated.

Major General Khan’s claim that the Taliban have been crushed in Bajaur comes one year and one day after he previously claimed the Taliban were defeated there.

“They have lost,” Khan told reporters on March 1, 2009, after a brutal campaign that began in August 2008 was declared to have ended. “Their resistance has broken down. We think we have secured this agency. The Taliban have lost their cohesion.”

But the Taliban continued to exert control in Bajaur during 2009, killing tribal leaders who dared to work with the Pakistani government and military.

Taliban “no longer significant” in the tribal areas: Khan

Major General Khan also claimed in his recent interview that the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has been defeated throughout the tribal areas after a series of operations that began in October 2009 in South Waziristan.

“The kind of hits the leadership has taken, the casualties they have taken, the TTP [the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan] is no longer significant,” he told The Sunday Times. “It has ended as a cohesive force. It doesn’t exist any more as an umbrella organization that can influence militancy anywhere.”

The Pakistani Taliban have suffered setbacks in Pakistan’s northwest over the past year, primarily in Swat, a settled district outside of the tribal areas, when the military launched a major operation in April 2009. The military also claimed to have successfully driven out the Taliban in the Mehsud tribal areas following the operation that began in October 2009.

But the Taliban maintain a significant presence in the tribal areas, including in the Wazir regions in the western areas of South Waziristan, and in North Waziristan, Arakzai, Khyber, Kurram, and Mohmand. The Taliban in the Mehsud tribal areas in the eastern region of South Waziristan conducted a tactical retreat and resettled in North Waziristan, Arakzai, Kurram, and Khyber.

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WASHINGTON: The Obama administration sent lawmakers this week a plan for $1.45 billion in aid for Pakistan this year, funding water, energy and other projects as well as a media campaign to counter extremist views.

The spending plan, obtained by Reuters, was sent to lawmakers late on Thursday as part of the US administration’s obligation to consult Congress over the civilian aid package.

The aid is aimed at expanding ties with Islamabad beyond military spending, which amounted to more than $10 billion over the past nine years.

Image by FusionPix/Corbis

Washington also wants to help Pakistan’s weak government meet budget shortfalls and deliver services to a population increasingly angry about economic and security troubles.

The 15-page spending plan said the Obama administration was working closely with Pakistan’s government to design “high-impact” projects in energy, agriculture, water and education and to improve services and economic opportunities for people in areas susceptible to extremism.

The “funding will help build the capacity of the government of Pakistan to provide basic services while extending its writ in poorer areas vulnerable to extremism,” said the report.

The biggest chunk of the money, about $ 1 billion, covers economic support, including funds to build up weak government capacity at both the local and national levels.

Infrastructure projects take up $55 million, with a focus on energy and helping to ease rolling blackouts that have crippled some industry and are a major public irritant. About $50 million was set aside for a “comprehensive communications strategy” to counter extremist views and strengthen Pakistani institutions and moderate voices, the report to Congress said.

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PESHAWAR: Security forces have killed 25 militants in Peshawar’s frontier region in the first four days of in ‘Operation Spring Cleaning’, according to officials.

Addressing a joint press conference in the Spina Thana near Darra Adamkhel on Saturday, city police chief Liaqat Ali Khan, Frontier Constabulary Commandant Safwat Ghayur, the Frontier Corps’ (FC) Brigadier Faiz and the army’s Col Qaiser said the operation was launched on the basis of intelligence reports that around 300 militants were setting up a “command-and-control system” in Pastowany area of Peshawar’s frontier region, intimidating the local population and using the area in a bid to mount an attack on Peshawar.

The officials said that operation was jointly launched on February 24, and would continue until the elimination of militants form the area. They said one a FC troop had been killed in fighting and five others injured.

The officials said while several militants had been taken into custody, they put up “tough resistance”. They said the arrested militants belonged to Darra, Peshawar, Bannu, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and Fateh Jang.

They said huge caches of arms and ammunition and eight suicide jackets had been seized during the operation and “militant headquarters and hideouts destroyed”. They said “training material” and “literature” had also been confiscated.

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Staff Report
Daily Times
March 1st, 2010