Factbox: Key facts in U.S.-Pakistan relations

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad on Sunday, hoping to bolster shaky U.S. relations with a close ally in the struggle against militant insurgents in both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.

Here are some facts about the importance and problem areas of the relationship, what aid has been given, what Pakistan wants and what is to come:

STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

Pakistan is of huge strategic importance and a main ally for the United States as it seeks to defeat al Qaeda and cripple the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 2001 attacks on the United States, is believed to be hiding somewhere along the lawless border with Afghanistan. The leaders of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan are also believed to be hiding in Pakistan.

Washington is also pressing for Pakistan to step up the fight against its own homegrown Taliban militants, which U.S. officials believe were behind the attempted bombing in New York’s Times Square on May 1.

Washington needs Pakistan as it seeks to stabilize Afghanistan as U.S. President Barack Obama sends in an extra 30,000 troops in the coming months.

SECURITY COOPERATION

Much of Clinton’s meetings will focus on how to improve security cooperation, from intelligence-sharing to more equipment from the United States for its ally.

The two sides held an earlier round of talks in March and agreed to fast-track pending Pakistani requests for military equipment including helicopters, fighter jets and pilotless drones.

Washington has also pledged to deliver 1,000 laser-guided bomb kits to Pakistan and is considering more weapons sales to help Pakistan with insurgents in the Afghanistan border region.

KEY IRRITANTS

There is mistrust on a range of issues, from security cooperation to how aid is delivered. Most opinion polls show a majority of Pakistanis hold an unfavorable view of the U.S. government and are suspicious of its intentions. Pakistan’s government bristles when Washington complains it has not done enough to tackle militants in a war that has killed more than 2,000 soldiers and weighed on the economy.

Civilian deaths from drone strikes are also unpopular in Pakistan, although the civilian government is believed to privately support them.

A recent source of U.S. irritation has been delays in granting visas for U.S. officials wanting to audit how aid is spent while Pakistan complains about increased security checks for its citizens visiting the United States.

Clinton, in a visit to Pakistan in October, publicly expressed puzzlement that its government had been unable to find scores of al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden who are believed to be hiding in rugged border territory that divides Pakistan and Afghanistan.

AID PROGRAMME

The United States is Pakistan’s biggest aid donor and has given about $15 billion in direct aid and military reimbursements since 2002, about two-thirds of it security related.

While Pakistan is being propped up by an $11.3 billion International Monetary Fund loan, a new U.S. aid package triples non-military assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year over the next five years.

The flow of money is being held up, however, as the Obama administration changes how it distributes that aid. Instead of largely using U.S. contractors and non-governmental organizations, it wants to funnel much of the aid via the Pakistani government and domestic NGOs in the hope this will bolster local capacity.

NUCLEAR COOPERATION

Pakistan would like a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the United States, similar to the one Washington has with India, but there were scant signs of progress on this front during the March meetings.

The United States is leery of such a deal out of concern for how it might affect ties with New Delhi.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari recently visited China amid signs that Chinese companies were ready to move ahead with plans to build two nuclear reactors for Pakistan, which could raise concerns in both Washington and New Delhi about nuclear proliferation.

(Editing by John O’Callaghan and Chris Allbritton)

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Gates sees progress in Afghan war, security handover

June 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) – U.S.-led forces are making progress against insurgents in Afghanistan despite significant casualties and concerns about the quality of Afghan troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.

Gates told the “Fox News Sunday” program that U.S. General Stanley McChrystal and other military leaders are confident that the campaign against Taliban insurgents, particularly in southern Afghanistan, is moving in the right direction.

McChrystal is the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

“It is a tough pull and we are suffering significant casualties,” Gates said, adding that the Pentagon had expected a fierce battle in the southern city of Kandahar and other Taliban-controlled areas.

“He (McChrystal) is confident he will be able to demonstrate by December that not only do we have the right strategy but that we are making progress,” Gates said.

The U.S. defense secretary, however, said it was too early to be able to say how many U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan and how quickly they would leave when a planned drawdown began in July 2011.

“That absolutely has not been decided,” Gates said.

President Barack Obama decided in December to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of a revised strategy that focuses on securing Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, to try to turn the tide in the nearly nine-year-old war.

Obama also announced the July 2011 date for the gradual withdrawal of troops. Transferring responsibility for security to Afghan troops in certain parts of the country is one of the linchpins of the Obama strategy.

But doubts remain that Afghan troops will be able to assert control if given broader authority next year — recent reports have suggested that Kabul’s army is poorly trained and suffers high rates of desertion.

Some top military officials have said privately that they doubt they will really know if the war strategy is working or not until next summer, around the time Obama plans to begin a troop withdrawal, conditions permitting.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told ABC’s “This Week” program that the July 2011 drawdown date was “firm,” adding that Washington was seeing signs that the Afghan government was making headway on security.

“We are now at that point in Afghanistan, and in fact for the first time in eight years, nine years, they’re actually meeting their police recruitment requirements as well as their army recruitment requirements,” he said in an interview aired on Sunday.

Gates said he was confident that Afghan troops would be ready to take over primary responsibility for security in some parts of Afghanistan.

(Writing by Paul Simao, Editing by Will Dunham)

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Report says Pakistan meddling in Afghanistan

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

KABUL, June 13 (Reuters) – Pakistani military intelligence not only funds and trains Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but is officially represented on the movement’s leadership council, giving it significant influence over operations, a report said.

The report, published by the London School of Economics on Sunday, said its research strongly suggested support for the Taliban was the “official policy” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Although links between the ISI and the Taliban have been widely suspected, the findings, which it said were corroborated by two senior Western security officials, could raise more concerns in the West over Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan.

The report also said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was reported to have visited senior Taliban prisoners in Pakistan earlier this year, where he is believed to have promised their release and help for militant operations, suggesting support for the Taliban “is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government”.

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In Islamabad, a Pakistani presidential spokeswoman, Farah Ispahani, dismissed the allegations in the report as “absolutely spurious”. She said there “seems to be a concentrated effort to try to damage the new Pakistan-American strategic dialogue”.

Militants were feeling the pressure, she added, because “we will rout them from every area of Pakistan we find them in”.

“Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude,” said the report, based on interviews with Taliban commanders, former senior Taliban ministers and Western and Afghan security officials.

In March 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said they had indications elements in the ISI supported the Taliban and must end such activities.

Western officials have been reluctant to talk publicly on the subject for fear of damaging cooperation from Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state Washington has propped up with billions of dollars in military and economic aid.

“The Pakistan government’s apparent duplicity — and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment — could have enormous geo-political implications,” said the report’s author, Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.

“Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency,” Waldman said in the report.

The report comes at the end of one of the bloodiest weeks for foreign troops in Afghanistan — more than 30 were killed — and at a time when the insurgency is at its most violent.

More than 1,800 foreign troops, including some 1,100 Americans, have died in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. The war has already cost the United States around $300 billion and now costs more than $70 billion a year, the report said, citing 2009 U.S. Congressional research figures.

ISI, GULF FUNDING

The report said interviews with Taliban commanders “suggest that Pakistan continues to give extensive support to the insurgency in terms of funding, munitions and supplies”.

“These accounts were corroborated by former Taliban ministers, a Western analyst and a senior U.N. official based in Kabul, who said the Taliban largely depend on funding from the ISI and groups in Gulf countries,” the report said.

Almost all of the Taliban commanders interviewed in the report believed the ISI was represented on the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s supreme leadership council based in Pakistan.

“Interviews strongly suggest that the ISI has representatives on the (Quetta) Shura, either as participants or observers, and the agency is thus involved at the highest level of the movement,” the report said.

The report also said Zardari, and a senior ISI official, allegedly visited some 50 senior Taliban prisoners at a secret location in Pakistan where he told them they had been arrested only because he was under pressure from the United States.

Afghanistan has been highly critical of ISI involvement in the conflict, while analysts believe Pakistan will be unwilling to cooperate fully against the Taliban without reassurances about a reduction in India’s large presence in country.

The report’s author, said some, but not all, the commanders he spoke to said the ISI support was given so as to undermine Indian influence in Afghanistan.

The main focus of those he interviewed was on driving out foreign forces, restoring sharia law and obtaining justice and security. “They didn’t talk about the Taliban regaining the reins of government,” Waldman told Reuters in London.

Nor was there any sign of al Qaeda being a significant influence. None expressed any affection for al Qaeda and some acknowledged its role in the Taliban’s downfall in 2001.

He said those he spoke to wanted peace, but not at any cost.

While he detected some reluctance to see an immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces — which could precipitate a civil war — the massive presence of troops was a major problem.

They wanted clean and honest government and the separation of men and women, including at work. They were happy to see girls’ education, but only up to a certain age.

They were also well aware of factors running in their favour, including the unpopularity of the government and divisions in the international community about the Afghan war.

“Although they are tired and war-weary, they feel a level of confidence in the eventual outcome,” he said. (Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald in London and Chris Allbritton in Islamabad, Editing by Matthew Jones) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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Afghan president visits Taliban spiritual home

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 13 (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited the Taliban’s spiritual home on Sunday, launching a campaign that promises better governance and development alongside a security push by foreign forces.

Accompanied by the commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, Karzai pleaded for support from a gathering of several hundred elders in Kandahar, the city that launched the Taliban and the capital of the province where their insurgency is at its strongest.

“Right now the life of Kandahar is a very bad life,” he said at a conference hall in the city. “Step by step, we can go forward.”

In recent years Karzai has rarely ventured to Kandahar, where he survived an assassination attempt in 2005. He has strong family roots there, however. His brother chairs the provincial assembly and has been accused of corruption, charges he denies.

Washington’s strategy to end the nine-year-old war involves a surge of troops to improve security accompanied by development schemes that provide jobs and an improvement in government services.

Karzai’s administration has been accused in the past of not keeping its side of the bargain, but McChrystal said he believed the government was taking action now.

“I thought I saw extraordinary ownership on the part of a national leader,” he said. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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Foreign troop deployment is expected to peak at 150,000 before U.S. President Barack Obama’s planned withdrawal starts in July 2011. Visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron made clear last week he wanted his troops out as soon as possible.

This month alone some 37 foreign service members have died in Afghanistan.

Asked what changes the residents of Kandahar would notice after this operation — military officials are keen not to use the word “offensive” — McChrystal said:

“I think it won’t look shockingly different than it does now. … I think it may feel very different.”

“There will be more ANP (police). I think more mothers will feel comfortable with their husbands going to the mosque to pray. I think there will be fewer killings. I think there will be a sense that some of the constricting or menacing pressure on the part of the insurgency has been released.

And I hope it is also matched by improvements in governance.”

Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzi, said the Kandahar operation was welcomed by locals. But some remained sceptical.

“In Afghanistan, people first see and then believe,” said Ghulam Jilani Popal, head of the Afghan Independent Directorate of Local Government. (Writing by David Fox from pool notes; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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RPT-Report slams Pakistan for meddling in Afghanistan

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

KABUL, June 13 (Reuters) – Pakistani military intelligence not only funds and trains Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but is officially represented on the movement’s leadership council, giving it significant influence over operations, a report said.

The report, published by the London School of Economics, a leading British institution, on Sunday, said research strongly suggested support for the Taliban was the “official policy” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Although links between the ISI and Islamist militants have been widely suspected for a long time, the report’s findings, which it said were corroborated by two senior Western security officials, could raise more concerns in the West over Pakistan’s commitment to help end the war in Afghanistan.

The report also said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was reported to have visited senior Taliban prisoners in Pakistan earlier this year, where he is believed to have promised their release and help for militant operations, suggesting support for the Taliban “is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government”.

A Pakistani diplomatic source described that report as “naive”, and also said any talks with the Taliban were up to the Afghan government.

“Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude,” said the report, based on interviews with Taliban commanders and former senior Taliban ministers as well as Western and Afghan security officials.

“DUPLICITY”

In March 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said they had indications elements in the ISI supported the Taliban and al Qaeda and said the agency must end such activities.

Nevertheless, senior Western officials have been reluctant to talk publicly on the subject for fear of damaging possible cooperation from Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state Washington has propped up with billions of dollars in military and economic aid.

“The Pakistan government’s apparent duplicity — and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment — could have enormous geo-political implications,” said the report’s author, Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.

“Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency,” Waldman said in the report.

The report comes at the end of one of the bloodiest weeks for foreign troops in Afghanistan — more than 21 have been killed this week — and at a time when the insurgency is at its most violent.

More than 1,800 foreign troops, including some 1,100 Americans, have died in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. The war has already cost the United States around $300 billion and now costs more than $70 billion a year, the report said, citing 2009 U.S. Congressional research figures.

VIOLENT REGIONS

The report said interviews with Taliban commanders in some of the most violent regions in Afghanistan “suggest that Pakistan continues to give extensive support to the insurgency in terms of funding, munitions and supplies”.

“These accounts were corroborated by former Taliban ministers, a Western analyst and a senior U.N. official based in Kabul, who said the Taliban largely depend on funding from the ISI and groups in Gulf countries,” the report said.

Almost all of the Taliban commanders interviewed in the report also believed the ISI was represented on the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s supreme leadership council based in Pakistan.

“Interviews strongly suggest that the ISI has representatives on the (Quetta) Shura, either as participants or observers, and the agency is thus involved at the highest level of the movement,” the report said.

The report also stated that Pakistani President Zardari, along with a senior ISI official, allegedly visited some 50 senior Taliban prisoners at a secret location in Pakistan where he told them they had been arrested only because he was under pressure from the United States.

“(This) suggests that the policy is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government,” the report said.

Afghanistan has also been highly critical of Pakistan’s ISI involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan. Last week, the former director of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, resigned saying he had become an obstacle to President Hamid Karzai’s plans to negotiate with the insurgents. [ID:SGE6560IX]

In an exclusive interview with Reuters at his home a day after he resigned, Saleh said the ISI was “part of the landscape of destruction in this country”.

“It will be a waste of time to provide evidence of ISI involvement. They are a part of it. The Pakistani army of which ISI is a part, they know where the Taliban leaders are — in their safe houses,” he told Reuters. (Editing by David Fox and Alex Richardson) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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11 Taliban killed in Afghanistan

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kabul, May 29 (IANS) Afghan forces backed by NATO troops killed 11 Taliban militants, including their commander, during an overnight operation in Afghanistan’s northern Baghlan province, police said Saturday.

‘Afghan troops backed by Special Forces raided a compound in Baba Saqa area last night after intelligence information indicated insurgent activity there, killing 11 enemies including their commander Mullah Jabbar Gujar,’ Xinhua quoted deputy provincial police chief Sayed Jamaludin as saying.

The combined forces had asked the militants to surrender, but they refused to lay down their arms, he said, adding that no civilians were hurt in the operation.

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Suspected Taliban blow up “U.S. spies” in Pakistan

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Taliban militants strapped explosives to two men accused of being U.S. spies and blew than up at a public execution in northwest Pakistan, intelligence officials and residents said on Friday.

The killings took place on Thursday evening in North Waziristan, a lawless al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border where the United States has stepped up attacks with missile-firing drone aircraft, fuelling militant fears of spies.

Five masked militants paraded the hand-cuffed men before dozens of people in the Datta Kheil area and accused them of passing information to the United States on targets for its CIA-operated pilotless drone aircraft.

“They strapped explosives around their bodies and then blew them up,” a Pakistani intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.

Militants have killed hundreds of people they suspect are spies for the United States or the Pakistani government over the past few years.

They usually decapitate or shoot the suspects. Residents said this was the first time the militants had blown up suspected spies.

Pakistan’s northwestern ethnic Pashtun tribal lands along the Afghan border have never been under the full control of any government and have for decades been Islamist militant hubs.

During the 1980s, the tribal belt was a staging area for the U.S.- and Pakistani-backed jihad, or Muslim holy war, against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan.

Many Taliban and al Qaeda fighters fled there after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

A separate Pakistani Taliban force then emerged from the Pashtun tribes and they have been waging war against the Pakistani state in recent years.

The army launched a major offensive in the Pakistani Taliban bastion of South Waziristan last October, killing hundreds of insurgents and destroying their main bases. Many militants took refuge in North Waziristan, officials said.

The United States wants Pakistan to extend its offensive to North Waziristan and go after militants there, particularly Afghan Taliban, who launch cross-border attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military, which has long seen the Afghan Taliban as tools for limiting the influence of old rival India in Afghanistan, says it will deal with North Waziristan but in its own time.

(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)

(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)

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Taliban in secret unofficial talks over Afghanistan in Maldives?

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 21(ANI): The Taliban is reportedly holding secret unofficial talks over Afghanistan at an undisclosed location in the Maldives.

It is not clear whom the Taliban are talking to, but a Maldivian Government statement has indicated that it might be with the officials not directly connected with the Afghanistan Government.

“We cannot disclose the location of the talks, although we can confirm that they are not being held in Male or other population centres,” ABC quoted the statement, as saying.

“Afghanistan’s stability affects the peace and security of our region. The government of Maldives supports efforts to bring a resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan,” the statement added.

The Afghan administration of President Hamid Karzai had earlier made it clear that it would like to negotiate with the Taliban, and the subject of negotiations was one of the prime topics discussed when Karzai met with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this month.

However, talking over the speculations, Afghan Government Media Center Deputy Director, Sedeqi, denied that Afghanistan Government is participating in the negotiations.

“We aren’t involved in these talks,” Sedeqi said.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley also supported the claim and said: “The Afghan Government has told us that it is aware of the unofficial talks being reported today… and according to the Afghan Government these talks do not include official representatives of the Government of Afghanistan.” (ANI)

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US spy ring at work in Pakistan, Afghanistan

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 16 (IANS) US military officials are still using private detectives to track Taliban guerrillas in Pakistan and Afghanistan in defiance of defence department norms, The New York Times has reported.

Despite concerns about the legality of the operation, top military officials have continued to rely on a secret network of private spies who have produced hundreds of reports from deep inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, the report said Saturday quoting American officials and businessmen.

Earlier this year, government officials admitted that the military had sent a group of former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers and retired Special Operations troops into the region to collect information.

The inputs were used to track and kill people suspected of being militants. It was hastily shut down once a probe began.

‘Not only are the networks still operating, their detailed reports on subjects like the workings of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and the movements of enemy fighters in southern Afghanistan are also submitted almost daily to top commanders and have become an important source of intelligence,’ The Times said.

Under the Pentagon rules, the army is not allowed to hire private agencies for spying in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Military officials said Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in the region, signed off on the operation in January 2009.

The private security experts, called contractors, were supposed to provide only broad information about the political and tribal dynamics in the region, and information that could be used for ‘force protection’, they said.

The contractors’ reports are delivered via an encrypted e-mail service to an ‘information operations fusion cell’, located at the military base at Kabul International Airport. There, they are fed into classified military computer networks, then used for future military operations or intelligence reports, the report said quoting officials.

Some Pentagon officials said that over time the operation appeared to morph into traditional spying activities. And they pointed out that the supervisor who set up the contractor network, Michael D. Furlong, was now under investigation.

But a review of the programme by The Times found that Furlong’s operatives were still providing information using the same intelligence gathering methods as before.

The contractors were being paid under a $22 million deal, the review shows.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said that the programme ‘remains under investigation by multiple offices within the defence department’, so it would be inappropriate to answer specific questions about who approved the operation or why it continues.

‘I assure you we are committed to determining if any laws were broken or policies violated,’ he was quoted as saying.

A senior defence official said that the Pentagon recently decided not to renew the contract, which expires at the end of May.

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Strong military presence necessary to defeat Taliban: McCrystal

April 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Stressing that the new strategy of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan is showing results, top American commander Gen Stanley McCrystal has sought to shore up public support for Germany’s highly unpopular military mission in that country.

The new strategy of showing stronger military presence, especially in populated areas, in partnership with the Afghan security forces, is very crucial for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, Gen McCrystal said after talks with German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg here.

However, this strategy, which the International Security Assistance Force has been pursuing in Afghanistan since early this year, also involves great risks, as the death of seven German soldiers in attacks by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan earlier this month shows, Gen McCrystal said.

German public support for the Afghanistan engagement dropped sharply since four soldiers were killed in an attack on their convoy by the Taliban during a joint patrol with Afghan security forces in Baghlan last Thursday and three soldiers died in an attack on a similar patrol in Kundus two weeks earlier.

Latest opinion polls showed that more than 60 per cent of the German public want the country’s soldiers to be pulled out immediately.

Gen McCrystal said in a German television interview that the battle against the insurgents can be won only if the people of Afghanistan are firmly behind the government and the security forces.

There will be less attacks if the people support the government and the security forces and the Taliban will have difficulties to get new recruits, he said.

But it also meant that the international forces will have to take into account certain risks in the short term.

To go out in the populated areas and to seek contacts with the public always involved risks.

“It must be clear to everybody concerned that the most effective protection for the Afghan people and the security forces is to get the Afghan public fully behind them,” he said.

The governments involved in the NATO-led mission should make it clear to their people that this kind of operation involved risks all over Afghanistan.

“We must accept these risks. At the same time, we must do everything possible to protect our forces while fulfilling our mission effectively,” he said.

Gen McCrystal lobbed the engagement of the German forces in Afghanistan and said his decision to put a contingent of 2,500 American troops under the German command in northern Afghanistan “is a testimony to the full confidence” in their leadership.

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Pak doesn’t want any Indian military, intelligence presence in Afghanistan: Haqqani

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr.17 (ANI): Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani has said that his country would not want India to establish any military or intelligence base in Afghanistan, which would prove detrimental for Islamabad’s integrity and stability.

In an interview to The Financial Times, Haqqani said Pakistan wants peace and stability in the region, adding that it would never want Afghan soil to be used to destabilise and weaken other countries.

“Any Indian presence in Afghanistan should not be a strategic military or intelligence presence that threatens Pakistan’s integrity, stability and strength,” Haqqani said while replying to a question.

When asked to explain Pakistan’s concerns over India’s increasing presence in Afghanistan, Haqqani said Islamabad has shared with the US, information and intelligence regarding its activities inside Afghanistan that are unfavourable for his country’s security.

He stressed that Pakistan is committed to rooting out militancy from its soil, and would not allow it to be used by organisations such as the Al-Qaeda.

“There will be no area of Pakistan which will be available to any al Qaeda-linked group whether it is Afghan originated or Pakistani, that pose a threat to Pakistan or any member of the international community,” Haqqani said.

Haqqani asserted that Pakistan does not want the Taliban to take over Afghanistan once again after the US pulls out of the war ravaged country.

“That should be clear to everyone. It is not in Pakistan’s interests to see the Taliban return to power in Afghanistan. All we are looking for is that post-American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the biggest reality for Pakistan is that we do not want the Taliban running Afghanistan, with demands from Pakistani Taliban to try to create a similar system on the Pakistani side,” he explained. (ANI)

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Pakistani forces kill 23 militants in Orakzai

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HANGU, Pakistan, April 11 (Reuters) – Pakistani soldiers backed by jets and helicopters clashed with Taliban in the northwestern Orakzai region on Sunday, killing more than 20 militants, government officials said.

The fighting came a day after fighter jets bombed a militant stronghold in the neighbouring Khyber region on the Afghan border, killing 45 people, according to militant sources.

“Three Taliban hideouts have been destroyed and 12 militants have been killed in Orakzai,” Khaista Gul, a regional government official, told Reuters.

Hours later, security forces clashed with militants near Kalaya, the main town of Orakzai, and killed 11 militants.

“The government forces have captured some important Taliban positions in the area,” government official Sajjad Khan said.

Orakzai and Khyber are two of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions, where militants and their al Qaeda allies fighting both the Afghan and Pakistani governments entrenched themselves after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Security forces have stepped up assaults in the northwest over the past year, largely clearing militants from the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and the South Waziristan and Bajaur regions on the Afghan border.

Security forces are now focusing on other areas, in particular Orakzai and Khyber, where militants who fled the earlier sweeps have taken refuge. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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The security forces’ successes have eased fears that nuclear-armed Pakistan, a vital ally for the United States as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, was sliding into chaos. [ID:nSGE6380CQ]

OPTIMISM

Similarly, hopes for an easing of destabilising political wrangling were raised last week when the National Assembly unanimously passed a set of constitutional reforms curbing the powers of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari. [ID:nSGE6370E9]

Optimism has been reflected in Pakistan’s stock market, where the main index is at levels not seen since 2008, supported by foreign buying.

Net foreign portfolio inflows were $113 million in March, the the second highest monthly inflow ever.

But the militants have shown they are still capable of striking at high profile targets in heavily guarded areas.

Militants attacked the U.S. consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday last week, killing five people, hours after a suicide bomber killed 48 people at political rally in a nearby district.

A militant commander said on Saturday that civilians were also among 45 people killed in attacks in a border area between Orakzai and Khyber but military officials denied it.

A senior military official said the jets attacked militants as they were trying to sneak into Orakzai from Khyber to attack a security checkpost.

The main route for Western forces’ supplies trucked from Karachi port to landlocked Afghanistan winds through the Khyber Pass and militants have frequently attacked convoys there.

Orakzai is a stronghold of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief who is widely believed to have been killed in a missile strike by pilotless U.S. drone aircraft in South Waziristan in January. (Additional reporting and writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Alex Richardson and Elizabeth Fullerton) (For full coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK] (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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Pakistani forces kill 23 militants in Orakzai

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HANGU, Pakistan, April 11 (Reuters) – Pakistani soldiers backed by jets and helicopters clashed with Taliban in the northwestern Orakzai region on Sunday, killing more than 20 militants, government officials said.

The fighting came a day after fighter jets bombed a militant stronghold in the neighbouring Khyber region on the Afghan border, killing 45 people, according to militant sources.

“Three Taliban hideouts have been destroyed and 12 militants have been killed in Orakzai,” Khaista Gul, a regional government official, told Reuters.

Hours later, security forces clashed with militants near Kalaya, the main town of Orakzai, and killed 11 militants.

“The government forces have captured some important Taliban positions in the area,” government official Sajjad Khan said.

Orakzai and Khyber are two of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions, where militants and their al Qaeda allies fighting both the Afghan and Pakistani governments entrenched themselves after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Security forces have stepped up assaults in the northwest over the past year, largely clearing militants from the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, and the South Waziristan and Bajaur regions on the Afghan border.

Security forces are now focusing on other areas, in particular Orakzai and Khyber, where militants who fled the earlier sweeps have taken refuge. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For full coverage of Pakistan click on [ID:nAFPAK] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The security forces’ successes have eased fears that nuclear-armed Pakistan, a vital ally for the United States as it struggles to stabilise Afghanistan, was sliding into chaos. [ID:nSGE6380CQ]

OPTIMISM

Similarly, hopes for an easing of destabilising political wrangling were raised last week when the National Assembly unanimously passed a set of constitutional reforms curbing the powers of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari. [ID:nSGE6370E9]

Optimism has been reflected in Pakistan’s stock market, where the main index is at levels not seen since 2008, supported by foreign buying.

Net foreign portfolio inflows were $113 million in March, the the second highest monthly inflow ever.

But the militants have shown they are still capable of striking at high profile targets in heavily guarded areas.

Militants attacked the U.S. consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday last week, killing five people, hours after a suicide bomber killed 48 people at political rally in a nearby district.

A militant commander said on Saturday that civilians were also among 45 people killed in attacks in a border area between Orakzai and Khyber but military officials denied it.

A senior military official said the jets attacked militants as they were trying to sneak into Orakzai from Khyber to attack a security checkpost.

The main route for Western forces supplies trucked from Karachi port to landlocked Afghanistan winds through the Khyber Pass and militants have frequently attacked convoys there.

Orakzai is a stronghold of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief who is widely believed to have been killed in a missile strike by pilotless U.S. drone aircraft in South Waziristan in January. (Additional reporting and writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alex Richardson) (For full coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK] (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

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Russia ‘not involved’ in Kyrgyzstan unrest

April 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The leader of Kyrgyzstan’s self-declared interim government has denied that Russia was involved in the unrest which drove the President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power.

Roza Otunbayeva was speaking after attending a memorial service for some of those killed in the uprising on Wednesday.

“I don’t see any grounds for such accusation that Russia has interfered in internal affairs of Kyrgyzstan and fitted opposition financially or other way to come to this conflict,” she said.

Health officials now say that 79 people died in the violence.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken by phone with Ms Otunbayeva and urged her to renew her country’s path to democracy.

The two also discussed the US base at Manas airport in Kyrgyzstan, which is a key transport hub for US-led operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

With the overall security situation still unclear, the United States has suspended troop flights from the air base.

Asked about the future of the air base, Ms Otunbayeva said the country would keep to its commitments.

Mr Bakiyev was forced to flee the capital Bishkek amid a bloody uprising last week, but insists he will not resign.

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Obama vows to deny al-Qaeda safe haven in Afghan-Pak

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny al-Qaeda safe haven and reverse Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan.

“We are going to disrupt and dismantle, defeat and destroy al-Qaeda and its extremist allies. That is our mission. And to accomplish that goal, our objectives here in Afghanistan are also clear: We’re going to deny al-Qaeda safe haven. We’re going to reverse the Taliban’s momentum,” Obama said in his address to US soldiers at the Bagram airfield.

The US President last night reiterated his country’s support to strengthen the capacity of Afghan forces and the Afghan government so that they could take responsibility and gain confidence of their own people.

Al-Qaeda and their extremist allies were not only a threat to the people of Afghanistan and America, but also a threat to the people all around the world, he said.

Recollecting 9/11 attack, Obama said this was the region where the perpetrators of the crime, al-Qaeda, still had their leadership.

“Plots against our homeland, plots against our allies, plots against the Afghan and Pakistani people are taking place as we speak right here,” the US President said.

“If this region slides backwards, if the Taliban retakes this country and al-Qaeda can operate with impunity, then more American lives will be at stake. The Afghan people will lose their chance at progress and prosperity. And the world will be significantly less secure,” he said.

Apart from the military effort to take the fight to the Taliban, Obama said his Afghan policy included civilian effort which aimed to improve daily lives of Afghans, combat corruption; and a partnership with Pakistan and its people.

“We can’t uproot extremists and advance security and opportunity unless we succeed on both sides of the border,” he said.

Across the border, the US President said Pakistan has mounted a major offensive against terrorism in its territory.

“We’ve seen violent extremists pushed out of their sanctuaries. We’ve struck major blows against al-Qaeda leadership as well as the Taliban’s. They are hunkered down. They’re worried about their own safety,” he said, adding America would be more secure with these efforts.

The United States would continue to pursue the Taliban and al-Qaeda as it was required to ensure the safety of American families back home, he added.

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Pak against Taliban gaining control in Afghanistan: Qureshi

March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar.27 (ANI): Rejecting the notion that Islamabad is providing ‘covert’ support to the Taliban in Afghanistan against foreign forces, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said there was a time when his country was ‘comfortable’ with the Taliban government, but it now does not want the insurgents to take control of the neighbouring nation.

In an interview with the National Public Radio, Qureshi said Pakistan wants peace and stability in Afghanistan, and would take all necessary steps in this regard in accordance with the country’s wishes.

“We are going to do whatever we can do to achieve the objective of a peaceful, stable, friendly Afghanistan,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi insisted that since the establishment of a democratic government in the country things have changed and that Pakistan is striving to be a “moderate, democratic voice”.

“What the American people need to understand is that people and democracy in Pakistan are getting their act together,” he said.

Later, talking to reporters after a meeting with US Vice-President Joe Biden, Qureshi said after meeting the top US diplomats during the strategic dialogue he believes that the Obama Administration is committed to strengthen ties with Islamabad.

“We exchanged views on the discussions we had at the strategic dialogue and his (Biden’s) expression of support reinforced my understanding that this administration is ready to turn bilateral relations into a partnership,” Qureshi said.

Biden had dropped in a White House meeting between National Security Adviser James Jones and top Pakistani officials including Qureshi, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Pakistan’s Ambassador in the US Hussain Haqqani. (ANI)

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Diggers played ‘important part’ in Taliban offensive

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Australian special forces were part of last month’s massive Coalition offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Defence Force boss Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston has revealed.

About 15,000 troops have been involved in Operation Mushtarak, one of the biggest ever military offensives launched by NATO troops since the war began.

Troops were flooded into Helmand province last month to flush out Taliban strongholds.

Australia has more than 1,000 troops stationed in nearby Uruzgan province.

Air Chief Marshal Houston has told Australia Network’s Newsline program that special forces were part of the operation.

“They were deployed into northern Kandahar and they actually took part in a very important part of the operation,” he said.

“They actually provided a block against movement of insurgents to and from Marja from northern Kandahar.”

Air Chief Marshal Houston has also foreshadowed more involvement of special forces troops in the next push of the offensive.

“I think you can expect to see Chinooks, in other words our aviation, our special forces and I guess if requested Australian-mentored kandaks to participate in that operation,” he said.

Twelve Australians have been killed while serving in Afghanistan.

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Too early for Afghan government to woo Taliban to lay down arms: Gates

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar.25 (ANI): Amidst talk of reconciliation with the Taliban in Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said it is too early for the Karzai government to be able to persuade top Taliban leaders to shun their violent ways.

Addressing a House committee, Gates said talks are necessary, but for a positive outcome it is important that the Afghanistan government is in a position of strength and the ‘Taliban convinced they are going to lose.’

“I don”t think we”re there yet,” The News quoted Gates, as saying.

Earlier, Gates told a congressional hearing that Pakistan has now realised the fact that the Taliban presents an acute threat to the democratic set up of the country.

He said Islamabad understands that it is facing an ‘existential threat’ from the banned terror outfit.

“It really has been extraordinary in my view, seeing what Pakistan has done over the last more than a year – in terms of becoming engaged, in terms of their operations and in terms of understanding they now face an existential threat,” Gates said. (ANI)

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Taliban arrests a ‘setback’ to peace process

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The former head of the UN’s mission to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has criticised Pakistan for arresting senior members of the Taliban.

The conflict in Afghanistan is now in its ninth year and the Taliban’s influence is still strong.

The United States is currently mounting a massive military campaign to reduce the Taliban’s power, but the UN and some other Western nations believe peace talks are the only way to end the fighting.

During the northern spring last year, the UN opened up secret channels of communication with the Taliban.

That communication ended with the arrest in Pakistan of their go-between, the Taliban’s number two Mullah Baradar, just weeks ago.

That was followed by the arrests of up to a further 14 prominent members of the Taliban.

The collapse of peace talks prompted Kai Eide to speak out for the first time since stepping down as the UN’s special representative earlier this month.

“The Pakistanis did not play the role that they should have played,” he said.

“They must have known about this. I don’t believe that these people were arrested by coincidence.

“They must have known who they were, what kind of role they were playing, and you see the result of that.”

Progress being made

The peace talks may have ended, but Mr Eide is adamant they were making progress on politics and humanitarian issues.

“We had progress on this,” he said, “such progress that on the 29th of September I found it right in the Security Council to also express gratitude to those in the Taliban movement who had helped us provide access to areas that has been closed to us.

“That was a rather extraordinary thing to do … and to my biggest surprise it was not noticed by many, but I do believe that it was noticed by the leadership of the Taliban movement.”

But Pakistan has rejected Mr Eide’s claims.

Overnight, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said the fact that Mullah Baradar’s arrest was a joint operation with the US had nothing to do with talks or reconciliation.

‘Game-changer’

Just this week the man overseeing the NATO-led military operation in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, called Baradar’s arrest a game-changer.

He said it “seems to have shaken the confidence of some of the Afghan Taliban leadership”.

Mr Eide was asked by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet about the American position about not engaging in peace talks with the Taliban.

“I believe on the contrary that talks are long overdue and had we really engaged in them some time ago then we could have come further than we are today,” he said.

“I do believe that what has happened over the last couple of months probably represents the setback in the possibility of getting this kind of political process going, but I hope not.

“But I do believe we have experienced a setback over the last few weeks.”

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Arrests of Taliban leaders by Pak blocked ‘secret’ talks with Taliban: UN official

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.19 (ANI): A top United Nations (UN) official has blamed Pakistan of blocking reconciliation efforts with the Taliban by arresting several top extremist commanders.

Admitting that there were secret negotiations going on with the Afghan Taliban, former UN envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide criticised Pakistan for the arrests of high-profile Taliban leaders, including the second-in command Mullah Ghani Baradar, which he said has ‘completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN.’

Eide said the UN was involved in face-to-face talks with the Taliban leaders to establish and stability in the region.

“The effect of [the arrests], in total, certainly, was negative on our possibilities to continue the political process that we saw as so necessary at that particular juncture.The Pakistanis did not play the role that they should have played…. They must have known who they were, what kind of role they were playing, and you see the result today,” BBC quoted Eide, as saying.

He said the secret deliberations were started a year ago and several rounds of talks were held until recently.

“The first contact was probably last spring, then of course you moved into the election process where there was a lull in activity, and then communication picked up when the election process was over, and it continued to pick up until a certain moment a few weeks ago,” Eide said.

When asked that whether the talks also involved the Taliban chief Mullah Omar, Eide said : “I find it unthinkable that such contact would take place without his knowledge and also without his acceptance.”

“We met senior figures in the Taliban leadership and we also met people who have the authority of the Quetta Shura to engage in that kind of discussion,” he added.

Eide’s revelation confirms that certain factions within the Taliban are ready for reconciliation, but the UN official cautioned that it would take months or even longer to bridge the trust deficit on both sides in order to move forward. (ANI)

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