Around 30,000 more troops being considered

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday.

A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama’s Democratic allies may support.

Record combat deaths have eroded US public support for the war, and a decision to expand troop levels could become a political liability for the president ahead of congressional elections next year.

Currently, there are about 67,000 US troops and 40,000 allied forces in Afghanistan.

Under one of the final Pentagon options presented to the White House, three additional combat brigades would be deployed and a division headquarters set up near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, as part of a 30,000-troop increase.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Obama had settled on a troop increase but has yet to make up his mind about its size.

Brigades generally include 3,500 to 4,000 troops, though they can swell to over 5,000 troops if other units are attached. Marine brigades can be larger.

Mr Obama, who will visit Asia from Nov 12-19, is expected to announce his decision within a few weeks, possibly after Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s inauguration. Mr Karzai was re-elected in a controversial poll tainted by fraud.

The timing may hinge on the extent to which Mr Karzai embraces US and European calls for a pact under which his government would commit to taking concrete steps to fight corruption and improve governance, including the delivery of public services.

Washington believes a successful counter-insurgency strategy against the Taliban hinges in large part on winning Afghan public support for the government in Kabul.

But Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this week that the re-elected president’s legitimacy among the Afghan people was ‘at best, in question right now and, at worst, doesn’t exist.’

Options on table

Senior Obama administration officials have stepped up consultations with key allies, laying the ground for an announcement on strategy and troop levels.

In his confidential troop request, Gen McChrystal said 40,000 additional troops were needed to help secure Afghan population centres and to give Nato some additional resources to take on Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in outlying areas.

Another option, deemed more risky by Gen McChrystal, calls for between 10,000 and 15,000 more troops, which would enable the commander to focus on securing population centres but provide few additional resources to broaden the anti-Taliban campaign.

A third option – to send an additional 80,000 troops to mount a more robust counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban across the country – was widely seen as a non-starter from the onset of the White House review.

Support for continuing a counter-insurgency strategy with a greater focus on protecting major Afghan population centres has been growing within the Obama administration.

Counter-insurgency advocates include Defence Secretary Robert Gates and military leaders, including Gen McChrystal. Officials said this strategy could be combined with a stepped up counter-terrorism campaign, advocated by Vice President Joe Biden, using unmanned aerial drones and special operations forces to combat Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in the Afghan countryside and near the border with Pakistan. — Reuters.

Car bomb blast kills 95 in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A car bomb tore through a packed market in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing 95 people and trapping casualties under pulverised shops, in one of Pakistan’s deadliest attacks.

The explosion detonated in a crowded street in the Meena Bazaar of Peshawar, one of the most congested parts of the volatile northwest city, sparking a huge blaze and ending in carnage routine shopping trips for scores of people.

The attack underscored the scale of the militant threat in Pakistan just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad for three days of talks with political and military leaders.

‘There was a huge blast. There was smoke and dust everywhere. I saw people dying and screaming on the road,’ witness Mohammad Siddique told AFP.

Angry flames leapt out of burning wreckage and smoke billowed in the air as a building collapsed into dust and rubble. Police evacuated panicked residents from the smouldering wreckage and firemen hosed down the flames.

‘It was a car bomb. Some people are still trapped in a building. We are trying to rescue them,’ bomb disposal official Shafqat Malik told reporters.

‘We have received 86 dead bodies, 213 people were injured, we are facing a shortage of blood,’ Doctor Hamid Afridi, head of the Peshawar’s main Lady Reading Hospital told AFP as staff declared an emergency.

A hospital official outside the casualty wing made a public announcement, appealing on people to donate blood as doctors spoke of harrowing scenes.

‘There are body parts. There are people. There are burnt people. There are dead bodies. There are wounded, I’m not in a position to count. But my estimate is that the death toll may rise to 70,’ said Doctor Muslim Khan.

Rescue workers and government officials had warned that casualties were trapped under collapsed shops at the bomb site, where a large blaze, a toppled building and the narrow streets hampered the relief effort.

‘I am counting the dead bodies, 86 are confirmed dead, the injured are more than 200, there are children and women among the dead,’ Mohammad Gul, a police official at the hospital, told AFP.

The area was one of the most congested parts of Peshawar and full of women’s clothing shops and general market stalls popular in the city of 2.5 million.

‘A building structure has collapsed… People are trapped in the fire and buildings. This is the most congested area of the city,’ Sahibzada Mohammad Anees, a senior local administrative official, told a private TV channel.

Peshawar, a teeming metropolis, is a gateway to Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt, where the military is pressing a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants blamed for some of the worst of the recent carnage.

Tensions have soared across Pakistan following a spike in violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists in which more than 240 people have died this month.

‘Al-Qaeda has shifted bases to Pakistan’

PHOENIX: US President Barack Obama says Al-Qaeda and its allies have shifted their bases from Afghanistan to the remote, tribal areas of Pakistan.

The US President said that terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot be eradicated in a short time span.

Speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, Obama said that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan would enable Al-Qaeda to plan similar attacks to that of 9/11.

He reiterated that the war on terror is necessary for the defence of the people.

According to the US president the perpetrators of 9/11 are planning more attacks and if left unchecked the Taliban insurgency will mean the creation of larger safe havens from which Al-Qaeda could plot to kill more Americans.

‘As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn’t just happen overnight, and we won’t defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy.’

‘But we must never forget: This is not a war of choice; this is a war of necessity.’

‘Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defence of our people,’ said the US president.

34 Taliban killed by Afghan and US-led forces

KHOST: Afghan and US-led forces killed up to 34 Taliban insurgents in fighting on the border with Pakistan overnight, the Afghan government and US military said Thursday.

Security forces had been tipped off about a gathering of militants in the eastern province of Paktika and had launched a ground attack and air strikes, an Afghan government official said.

‘In course of the operation 34 Taliban were killed,’ provincial government spokesman Hameedullah Zhohak told AFP.

The US military confirmed the battle and said its initial figures were that 29 militants were killed.

The troops wanted to capture a commander in the radical Haqqani network, Technical Sergeant Chuck Marsh told AFP.

‘Battle damage assessment is continuing but at least 29 militants have been killed,’ he told AFP from the US military media office in Kabul.

The network, part of the Taliban, was established by Afghan Soviet resistance commander Jalaluddin Haqqani but is now believed to be led by his sons, notably Siraj Haqqani, and is said to be close to Al-Qaeda.

Battle kills 22 Taliban rebels: police

KANDAHAR: Afghan and international forces killed 22 Taliban insurgents in the troubled south of the country during several hours of fierce fighting, police said on Sunday.

The rebels ambushed a joint Afghan and foreign forces patrol in Shinkay district of Zabul province late Saturday, sparking the exchange, provincial police chief Abdul Rehman Sarjang told AFP.

‘Twenty-two Taliban were killed. The militants left the bodies behind. Four are Pakistani nationals and the rest are Afghans,’ he said.

Sarjang added the international forces called in air support after the ambush. There were no casualties to the joint forces.

His figure for the Taliban casualties could not be independently verified.

The US military released a statement saying it had killed four Taliban in the same area, also on Saturday. It was unclear if it was the same incident.

There are more than 70,000 international troops under NATO and US command in Afghanistan helping in the fight against the insurgents.

The Taliban rose from southern Afghanistan to sweep into government in Kabul in 1996. They were ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001 that sent many of their leaders and Al-Qaeda allies into sanctuaries across in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda is trying to destabilize Pakistan: US

BERLIN: Bruce Riedel advisor to US President Barack Obama said Al-Qaida is trying to destabilize Pakistan and paralyze the government to the point that it becomes a failed state.

In an interview to German newspaper, Riedel said Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Therefore it is in the interest of the international community that the Taliban not reach their goal.

He said stronger they get in Punjab province and the main cities, the worse it is for Pakistan. We need to help the Pakistani elected leadership as they meet this challenge.

“ A considerable number of the Taliban are not hard-core committed Jihadists. They are in it for the money. If their momentum is broken, we will start to see a change in the cohesion of the Taliban by the end of the year. Those willing to renounce the Jihadists can be assimilated into the new Afghan order,” he said.

Al Qaeda seen behind Baitullah’s threat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud lacks the capacity to attack the United States and a threat to do so reflected the aims of his al Qaeda allies, analysts said on Thursday.

Mehsud, accused of orchestrating a string of attacks in Pakistan from the Waziristan region on the Afghan border, warned on Tuesday that Washington may be attacked for offering $5 million for information leading to his location or arrest.

‘He normally doesn’t issue hollow threats,’ said retired Brigadier Mehmood Shah, a former chief of security in militant-plagued northwest Pakistan.

Over the past few years, Mehsud has risen from obscurity to become Pakistan’s most notorious militant commander, blamed for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Because of his attacks and leadership qualities, al Qaeda was increasingly dealing directly with him, Shah told Reuters.

‘He seems to have convinced al Qaeda he’s a useful man … When he speaks of a threat to Washington, he means al Qaeda. By himself, he doesn’t have the capacity to carry out an operation so far away. He’s talking for al Qaeda,’ he said.

General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, said in Washington on Wednesday officials were studying whether Mehsud’s warning posed a credible threat to the United States.

‘Everyone is quite riveted on analysing that and seeing what further we can find out,’ Petraeus said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mehsud, who reportedly has links with the Taliban in Afghanistan and sends fighters to target Western forces there, issued his warning while announcing that his group carried out an assault on a police academy in Lahore on Monday that killed eight cadets.

Mehsud said the attack was in retaliation for US drone attacks on militants in Pakistan. He vowed more attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as in the United States.

Clues

A patchwork of militant factions is based in northwest Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun border lands.

Khadim Hussain of the Aryana Institute think-tank said the factions, including Mehsud’s, were increasingly united in a network that looked to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the area, as supreme leader.

While Mehsud alone was not capable of launching a strike in the United States, he might be able to activate al Qaeda’s global network through the militant alliance. Mehsud was not speaking for himself when he issued his threat, Hussain said.

‘He’s giving voice to this network and probably he’s been taking some kind of clues and suggestions from them,’ he said.

Analysts said Mehsud’s threat was also aimed at driving a wedge between Pakistan and the United States, where frustration has been growing with what is seen as Pakistan’s failure to stop militants crossing into Afghanistan

US military commanders have also made public accusations that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has maintained ties with groups close to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

‘He knows there is a lot of resentment against Pakistan in the United States and he wants to add to that,’ said security analyst Ikram Sehgal.

‘Clearly, it’s black propaganda. He has managed to spook the Pakistanis at the same time creating hatred against Pakistan. I think that was the idea,’ he said.

The US State Department has described Mehsud as a clear threat to American interests in the region. In his testimony, Petraeus said the cross-border reach of Mehsud’s group was questionable, but he added the threat would be taken seriously.

US offers cash rewards for Baitullah Mehsud

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday offered $ 5 million each for information leading to Baitullah Mehsud and for Sirajuddin Haqqani and $1 million for Abu Yahya al-Libi.

The offer, announced two days before the unveiling of the new US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, indicates hardening of Washington’s stance against the militants hiding along the Pak-Afghan border.

But reports attributed to senior US officials also indicate a willingness to include ‘reconcilable’ militants in the new peace process to be announced by President Barak Obama on Friday.

While the United States has previously offered large cash rewards for terrorism suspects in the past as well, until recently they regarded Mehsud mainly as a threat to Pakistan.

Previous US drone attacks had avoided targeting Mehsud’s hideouts but this changed earlier this month when US drones also began to target Mehsud and his men.

The change reflects a US desire to work closely with Pakistan for eradicating all extremists, whether they target Pakistan or the United States.

On Wednesday afternoon, the US Department of State issued three brief statements, saying that it’s offering lucrative cash awards for information about the three suspects under its Rewards for Justice Programme. The programme offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest, and/or conviction of dangerous criminals.

The State Department identified Baitullah Mehsud as the senior leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The statement noted that Mehsud is regarded as a key al Qaeda facilitator in South Waziristan. ‘Pakistani authorities believe that the January 2007 suicide attack against the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was staged by militants loyal to Mehsud,’ the statement said.

‘Press reports also have linked Mehsud to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the deaths of other innocent civilians,’ the State Department noted.

The US government pointed out that Mehsud has also stated his intention to attack the United States. He has conducted cross-border attacks against US forces in Afghanistan, and poses a clear threat to American persons and interests in the region.

‘The United States is determined to bring Baitullah Mehsud to justice. We encourage anyone with information on Mehsud’s location to contact the nearest US embassy or consulate, any US military commander, or the Rewards for Justice staff,’ the department said.

Another statement, announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location, arrest, and/or conviction of Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sirajuddin Haqqani is a senior leader of ‘the Haqqani terrorist network’ founded by his father Jalaladin Haqqani. He maintains close ties to al Qaeda.

During an interview with an American news organisation, Haqqani admitted planning the Jan. 14, 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.

Haqqani also admitted planning the April 2008 assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He has coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

‘Sirajuddin Haqqani is believed to be located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan,’ the State Department said.

The US government also authorised a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to Abu Yahya al-Libi, a prominent member of al Qaeda.

The State Department identified al-Libi as an Islamic scholar and a Libyan citizen who was captured by authorities in 2002 and imprisoned at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Al-Libi escaped in July 2005, and has since appeared in a number of propaganda videos, using his religious training to influence people and legitimise the actions of al Qaeda.

The State Department noted that al-Libi was a key motivator in the global jihadi movement and his messages ‘convey a clear threat to US persons or property worldwide.’ Al-Libi is believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Since its inception in 1984, the Rewards for Justice Programme has paid more than $80 million to more than 50 persons who provided credible information that has resulted in the capture or death of terrorists or prevented acts of international terrorism.

Iraq suicide bomber kills 11 at Baghdad police academy

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up killing eight policemen and three recruits, and wounding 16 more people in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, police said.

“Eight policemen and three future recruits died when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd outside the (police) academy on Palestine Street,” a police official told. The bomber activated his vest as he sped into the crowd, he said.

The academy in Baghdad has come under repeated attack. Fifteen people died and more than 45 were wounded in two blasts on December 1 as Al-Qaeda and other insurgents have continued to target security forces around the country. On Thursday, a truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded more than 50 at a crowded livestock market near Hilla, a mainly Shiite provincial capital south of Baghdad.

source : jang.com.pk

Iraq suicide bomber kills 28, 58 injured

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up killing at least 28 people and wounding 58 more outside a police academy in the Iraqi capital on Sunday in the bloodiest attack in weeks, officials said.

The bomber activated his vest as he sped into the crowd in central Baghdad on busy Palestine Street, an interior ministry official told. “The death toll has reached 28 dead and 58 wounded. The majority of the dead were police or recruits,” the official said.

Police academies across Iraq have come under repeated attack as Al-Qaeda and other insurgents continue to target security forces around the country.

The injured have been shifted to the hospital, while the death toll rise feared.

source : jang.com.pk

Security on high alert after al-Qaeda threat

ISLAMABAD: Interior Ministry issued directives to security agencies here to put security of a foreign airline and offices of foreign diplomats on high alert in all provinces after Saudi airline received an alleged threatening e-mail from al Qaeda, sources said on Wednesday.

According to sources, the airline received a threatening e-mail on February 14 to devastate its offices in Pakistan. Al Qaeda allegedly generated the e-mail.

Meanwhile, another alleged e-mail was received in Islamabad which threatened to destroy Saudi embassy following which embassy’s officials consulted with interior ministry to seek foolproof security measures for its offices across country, sources added.

Osama bin Laden may well be in Parachinar: Report

CALIFORNIA: Fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden is most likely hiding out in a walled compound in a Pakistani border town, according to a satellite-aided geographic analysis released today.

A research team led by geographer Thomas Gillespie of the University of California-Los Angeles used geographic analytical tools that have been successful in locating urban criminals and endangered species.

Basing their conclusion on nighttime satellite images and other techniques, the scientists suggest bin Laden may well be in one of three compounds in Parachinar, a town 12 miles from the Pakistan border. The research incorporates public reports of bin Laden’s habits and whereabouts since his flight from the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in 2001.

The results, reported in the MIT International Review, are being greeted with polite but skeptical interest among people involved in the hunt for bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader behind 9/11. Bin Laden’s whereabouts are considered “one of the most important political questions of our time,” the study notes.

“I’ve never really believed the sitting-in-a-cave theory. That’s the last place you would want to be bottled up,” Gillespie says. The study’s real value, he says, is in combining satellite records of geographic locations, patterns of nighttime electricity use and population-detection methods to produce a technique for locating fugitives.

source : jang.com.pk

Iraqi army finds 10 bodies in mass grave

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi army has uncovered 10 bodies in a shallow mass grave north of the capital believed to date back about two years to a period when Al-Qaeda terrorised the area, the military said on Sunday.

Army spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said the skeletons were found on Saturday in Al-Taji, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Baghdad. “The graves and the bones date back to about two years ago and are believed to be the work of Al-Qaeda,” he told.

source : jang.com.pk

Musharraf says surge in support for extremists

ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that support for the Taliban and Al-Qaeda is increasing in Pakistan. He said terrorism and extremism pose serious threat to the security of the country.

Talking to journalists here, Musharraf said the government would have to effectively deal with extremism and terrorism. The former president said he is being invited from various global think tanks to deliver lectures. Musharraf said he would visit India next week.

Over the continued US drone attacks inside Pakistan, he said there was no tacit agreement or understanding with the US to launch drone attacks inside Pakistan.

source : jang.com.pk

Karzai calls for reconciliation with Taliban

MUNICH: Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Sunday for a process of reconciliation with the Taliban, and urged foreign forces in his country to do more to halt civilian casualties.

With elections approaching in August, Karzai also denied that Afghanistan was a narco-state or a failed state and insisted that vast progress had been made over the last seven years.

“This is the right time for me to call for a process of reconciliation,” he said at a major security conference in Germany, addressing an audience that included top US and European officials. “We will invite all those Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda, who are not part of terrorist networks, who want to return to their country, who want to live by the constitution of Afghanistan and who want to have peace in their country and live a normal life, to participate, to come back to their country.”

Karzai is set to stand again in presidential elections on August 20, but his popularity has waned amid allegations of government corruption, growing opium production and an ever-more tenacious Taliban-led insurgency.

NATO nations and their partners fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have had mixed reactions to Karzai’s proposals to talk to the insurgents, with many saying they reject talks with militants who have blood on their hands.

source : jang.com.pk

Gunmen kill family, including women, child in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead nine members of a family, six of them women and a child, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq’s volatile northern Diyala province, police said.

The attackers then abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in a village of near the town of Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad.

Diyala is still one of Iraq’s most violent provinces, a place where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other militant groups still roam despite repeated attempts to stamp them out.

Police did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect, were targeted.

source : jang.com.pk

Bush defends interrogation record

President Bush on Sunday defended controversial interrogation measures established by his administration, arguing that techniques like water-boarding helped save American lives.

“The techniques…were necessary and are necessary to be used on a rare occasion to get information to protect the American people,” Bush said during an expansive exit interview that aired on Fox Sunday.

Citing an interrogation with Al Qaeda strategist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, which included simulated drowning, otherwise known as “waterboarding,” the outgoing president said, “We believe the information we gained helped save lives on American soil.”

The Bush administration has been criticized by civil liberties advocates and others for the use of, and legal justifications underpinning, these harsh interrogation methods. President-elect Barack Obama has already promised to review these policies when he takes the oath of office later this month.

In the interview with Fox News Sunday, Bush joked that his administration has been “slightly criticized” for its policy to push the legal limits of the rights, the treatment and the interrogation of suspected terrorists detained by U.S. military and intelligence officials, or cooperative governments.”

The president defended those measures repeatedly on Sunday, saying, “I firmly reject the word ‘torture.’ Everything this administration does had a legal basis to it; otherwise, we would not have done it.”

In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Obama said, “From my view, waterboarding is torture.”

Whatever Bush administration policies he overturns, the president-elect wants to protect intelligence officials at the Central Intelligence Agency in order to do their jobs.

“At the CIA, you’ve got extraordinarily talented people who are working hard to keep Americans safe,” Obama said on ABC. “I don’t want them to suddenly feel like they’ve got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders.”

The outgoing president is “confident” that his successor “understands the nature of the world and understands the need to protect America.” But Bush hopes Obama and his intelligence team “take a hard look at the realities of the world and the tools now in place to protect the United States from further attack.”

In the exit interview, Bush specifically mentioned Mohammed, whose interrogation became a flashpoint in the broader legal debate about the rights of suspected terrorists detained abroad.

Mohammed, a top Al Qaeda strategist, was arrested in Pakistan and eventually flown to a secret detention site in Poland, where he reportedly endured a series of harsh interrogation methods, most notably waterboarding. But Bush administration officials have repeatedly argued that that session with Mohammed gave them leads to prevent other attacks.

“Look, I understand why people can get carried away on this issue, but generally they don’t know the facts,” Bush said of his critics on Sunday.

“But I am concerned that America, at some point in time, lets down her guard,” the president said. “If we do that, the country becomes highly vulnerable.”

source : news.yahoo.com

US Advisor urges Obama to help Pakistan against terrorism

WASHINGTON: US National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley has said that Pakistan’s role in the war against terrorism was appreciable.

In a statement he said that Al Qaeda and Taliban were danger to Pakistan. He further said that Pakistan was itself a victim of terrorism and urged upon President-elect Barack Obama to help Islamabad.

source : jang.com.pk

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Zardari terms Indian jets air intrusion as technical error

ISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Sunday said that three-quarters of the most serious terror plots investigated by British authorities had links to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, although he stressed terrorism was a “global problem.”

After holding talks with President Asif Ali Zardari in the wake of Mumbai attacks he said time for talks is over and now it is time to act.

President Zardari on the occasion urged India to share information and assured that Pakistan government is ready to take further action against militant forces.

He termed the air intrusion by Indian aircrafts as technical mistake.

The British Prime Minister addressing a press conference along with President Zardari pledged to help Pakistan “break the chain of terror”.

He said Britain would work with the government in Islamabad to ensure that terrorists were denied safe havens in Pakistan, pledging six million pounds (nine million dollars) to help it tackle militancy.

“Through these measures we hope to do more to break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK and other countries around the world,” Brown said at a press conference with Zardari.

Brown said his meeting with Zardari had reassured him of Pakistan’s determination to act against those responsible for what he called a “human tragedy on a terrible scale.”

Brown said the two nations must work together to “do everything in our power to cut off terrorism” and stressed that Pakistan was itself a victim of terrorism, having suffered 50 suicide attacks this year alone.

“I think it’s right that we have to help Pakistan to root out terrorism in its own country… all of us suffer when terrorists are active and are able to impose their will,” he said.

At least one British national died in last month’s attacks on India’s financial centre, and Brown said he had asked Zardari to allow British police to question Pakistani suspects if they wanted to do.

“I asked (Indian Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh this morning if he would allow the British police, if they chose to so do, to interview the person arrested as one of the suspects… I have similarly asked President Zardari,” he said.

“We all have an interest in discovering what lies behind the Mumbai outrages.” Pakistan has arrested a number of suspected militants in the wake of the attacks, including two leaders of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, while the lone surviving gunman, a Pakistani national, is being held in India.

Brown, who left Pakistan after the press conference, met Zardari hours after Islamabad said India had twice violated Pakistani air space on Saturday, drawing a swift denial from New Delhi.

Pakistan said Indian jets had flown over the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir and the eastern city of Lahore, where Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which India accuses of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, is active.

Zardari said the Indian fighter jets only “slightly entered Pakistani soil.”

Pakistan has arrested key leaders of LeT and shut down a charity accused of being a front for the group, freezing its assets and detaining dozens of members.

But it says it will not hand over any suspects to India, saying New Delhi has not yet provided any evidence implicating Pakistanis in the attacks.

Hamid Gul says, he was not in loop with Al-Qaeda

ISLAMABAD: Former Director General of ISI rejected all allegations regarding his connection with banned outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and also about his involvement in any terrorist activities.

This he said in an interview to U.S. based T.V channel, and added further, “Whatever happens in India, it (India) is in habit of putting blames on others.

Referring to Shumjhota Express massacre he said earlier India put blame on Pakistan but later it was proved that insiders were involved in the incident. Former DG ISI further said that he is not involved in terrorist activities nor was in connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He stressed that the new Government under Obama should reconsider US policies of war against terror. He was of the view that in order to solve problem in Afghanistan US and allies have to talk with Taliban.

Earlier, a U.S. secret document has declared ISI former chief, General Hameed Gul maintaining links with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda network besides being involved in arranging financial assistance to them.

The two-page unsigned document had already been provided to the government. Sources on the condition of anonymity told that Hameed Gul had been blamed for arranging financial assistance to the criminal groups operating in Kabul beside he has been involved in recruiting the youths from seminaries and giving them training in subversion, who allegedly launch assaults on the Allied Forces with high-tech weapons.

source: jang.com.pk

Al-Qaeda unlikely to disrupt polls: US

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda has shown no signs it plans to attack the United States during the presidential election, but the government must keep guard during the transition to a new president, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.

Chertoff added the global economic turmoil had yet to cause any visible change in Al-Qaeda’s strategy.

He also cautioned about heated political rhetoric in “an intemperate time,” saying it could fuel violence among Americans. “I have not seen evidence that a major element of Al-Qaeda’s planning is our anniversaries or our elections,”

Chertoff said in an interview, “Terrorist operations are undertaken when they are operationally ready. They don’t wait for something that’s an external event, and they don’t rush it.”

Al-Qaeda attacks around the time of elections in Spain, Britain and Pakistan have caused some experts to warn the United States is potentially vulnerable before the November 4 vote

Saudi to try 991 suspects over al Qaeda violence

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia indicted 991 suspected al-Qaeda militants for carrying out 30 attacks since 2003, Saudi media reported. A statement from Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz said charges had been laid against the suspects, who have been handed over to the courts for trials.

“Saudi Arabia has faced in recent years an organized terrorist campaign that struck at society, its way of life and the economy and it was directly linked to the organization called al Qaeda,” the statement said. The indictments aim to put an end to a chapter of violent opposition to the government run by the Al Saud ruling family in alliance with clerics.

The accused include some clerics who had publicly backed the militants, including Nasser al-Fahd, Ali al-Khodeir and Faris al-Shuweil, sources told Reuters. Fahd and Khodeir appeared on Saudi state television after their arrests in 2003 to call for an end to the bloodshed.

The group called Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula began a campaign to destabilize the U.S.-allied government in 2003 but the violence was brought to a halt by security forces in cooperation with foreign experts. Tuesday’s statement cited a figure of 30 attacks, from suicide bomb attacks on housing compounds in Riyadh in 2003 to an attempt to storm the world’s biggest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in 2006, the last militant operation of note.

It said more than 160 planned attacks had been foiled and the dead included 74 members of the security forces and 90 ordinary Saudis and foreign residents. It did not say how many militants died in the campaign. It said cyanide gas was among the weapons seized during the crackdown.

An Interior Ministry spokesman told media that most of the indicted men are Saudi nationals. Judges in Riyadh’s general court began viewing the cases on Monday, but it was not clear when the trials would begin.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the trials might not meet international standards.

“The precise charges against the defendants remain unclear because the kingdom has no written penal code and existing rulings do not constitute binding judicial precedent,” a statement said. “Human Rights Watch is seeking permission from the government of Saudi Arabia to attend the trials.”