Developments in Pakistan

[incarcerated]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704486504575097561385666570.html?m od=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

Pakistan Seizes Insurgent Stronghold on Afghan Border

ASIA NEWS
MARCH 2, 2010, 4:20 P.M. ET
By ZAHID HUSSAIN
DAMADOLA, Pakistan—Pakistani forces have seized a key al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold along the border with Afghanistan that once served as a hideout for Ayman al Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.
The capture of Damadola, a district in the Bajaur tribal region, is a major success in Pakistan's counterinsurgency campaign. The area had long been dominated by insurgents operating on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Pakistani forces seized the scenic district late last month, after several days of fierce fighting that Pakistan said left more than 75 foreign and local militants dead. Pakistan's military took reporters to the site, which is surrounded by snow-capped mountains less than five kilometers from the Afghan border, for the first time Tuesday.
"It was the main hub of militancy where al Qaeda operatives had moved freely," said Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the regional commander.
A complex of caves and fortified compounds made it more difficult for the Pakistani forces to dislodge the insurgents.
"They had occupied the ridges. There were 156 caves designed as a defensive complex," said Gen. Khan, who is head of the Frontier Corps responsible for Pakistan's counterinsurgency campaign in the region.
Gen. Khan said his forces have cleared the area to the Afghan border and that the campaign against the insurgents there was in its final stage. He said the development would help the U.S.-led troops fighting the insurgents across the border.
Tribesmen in the area have formed militias to defend their villages and have vowed to to back the military in fighting the militants. "We will not let the Taliban to return to our villages," said Sultan Khan, a local farmer….
Pakistani military officials said the area was also used by Mr. Zawahiri and other senior al Qaeda commanders. A large mud compound on a hilltop is believed to once have been the hideout of Mr. Zawahiri, one of the world's most-wanted terrorists, with a $25 million U.S. bounty on his head.
"He has been spotted here by the local residents in the past," said Col. Nauman Saeed, a local army commander….
On Tuesday, the Pakistan Taliban confirmed that a senior commander of the group, Mohammed Qari Zafar, was killed in a suspected American missile strike last week in the North Waziristan tribal area. Mr. Zafar's death was reported earlier by Pakistani intelligence officials.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704486504575097960182360150.html?m od=WSJ_latestheadlines

U.S. to Offer Smart-Bomb Kits, Drones to Pakistan

ASIA NEWS
MARCH 2, 2010, 5:32 P.M. ET
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
WASHINGTON––The Pentagon will transfer sophisticated laser-guided bomb kits to Pakistan, escalating the Obama administration's recent push to better arm Islamabad for its military campaign against the country's Islamic militants.
U.S. military officials said that Pakistan would soon receive equipment capable of converting 1,000 traditional munitions into "smart bombs" that can more precisely strike targets on the ground. American officials hope the reconfigured bombs will help Pakistan minimize civilian casualties as it battles insurgents in the country's lawless tribal regions.
Pakistan will also soon take possession of a dozen American-made surveillance drones and 18 late-model F-16 fighter jets, sharply expanding the Pakistani military's ability to track and strike targets in remote, insurgent-controlled parts of the country.
The laser-guided bomb kits could spark some unease in India…..
The clearest example of that assistance is the stepped-up U.S. military aid to Pakistan. A new American counterinsurgency assistance fund for Pakistan is slated to increase from $700 million in fiscal year 2010 to $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2011, allowing Islamabad to acquire more U.S.-made helicopters, night-vision goggles and other military equipment. Pakistan, which is smaller and poorer than neighboring India, uses American grants to fund most of its arms purchases….

[incarcerated]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575108881705401118.html?m od=googlenews_wsj

Deadly Blast Rocks Lahore

MARCH 8, 2010, 3:03 A.M. ET
By REHMAT MEHSUD And TOM WRIGHT

ISLAMABAD—A suspected Islamist suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a federal police office building during rush hour in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 11 people, an attack which marked a renewal of assaults on major urban government installations that had abated in recent months.

Local television showed emergency workers removing bloodied body bags from a crater outside the shattered front of the Federal Investigation Agency offices, the main Pakistan police investigation body which has taken a lead on probing Islamic militant groups.

"It was a suicide attack. A suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-laden car" into the investigation agency building, said Tariq Saleem Dogar, the police chief of Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital. About 60 people were inured and the death toll could rise, officials said....

It was the first major attack against Pakistan state installations since late last year when a series of attacks hit police, army and government buildings in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the Northwest Frontier province.

The Pakistan Taliban has carried out attacks before on the Lahore headquarters of the FIA, which is similar in function to the U.S. Federal Investigation Bureau and is involved in counterterrorism operations. The latest attack was in October last year when militants stormed the FIA building and other police targets, killing 38 people.

The target of the latest attack is significant because the Federal Investigation Agency has been one of the most effective government bodies in cracking down on the Pakistan Taliban and other Islamist groups and has worked closely with U.S. intelligence, said Samina Ahmed, an Islamabad-based expert on the region with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict resolution research body. "This is the one agency which is capable of infiltrating and gathering info on terrorist groups," she said.

Ms. Ahmed pointed out that despite the lull in major attacks on urban centers since the start of 2010, the Pakistan Taliban have been striking government targets in rural areas on a weekly basis this year....

[incarcerated]

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=100276

3 terrorists flee from police custody in Multan

Updated at: 1950 PST, Monday, March 08, 2010
MULTAN: Unknown assailants stormed a police station and managed to secure the release of three arrested terrorists from the police custody.

Three policemen on duty there were wounded, including an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), police said.

Sources privy to police said that three terrorists, who were under FIA custody, were shifted to Multan a few days ago for further interrogation.

The highly dangerous terrorists were kept in the Purana Alpa Police Station, which came under attack by the unknown gunmen today morning.

As a result of the gun-battle, three policemen were injured while attackers fled the scene after taking the arrested terrorists with them.

Police sources said that they were arrested from Lahore.

[Utah Bob]

Put 'em in the local hoosegow. Brilliant!:rolleyes:

[Marina]

starting to remind me of Yemen

:D

[incarcerated]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8559078.stm

Six killed in attack on World Vision office in Pakistan

18:17 GMT, Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Militants have attacked the office of a Western aid agency in north-western Pakistan, killing six people, police and the agency have said.

The victims, including two women, were all Pakistani nationals working for World Vision in Mansehra district.

The Christian group said it would suspend all operations in the country.

No group has admitted carrying out the attack but Islamist militants and specifically the Taliban will be suspected, a BBC correspondent says.

Earlier in the week, following a bombing in Lahore, the Taliban said they would carry out more attacks across the country as long as US air strikes and Pakistani army operations against them continued in the tribal areas, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says....

Two suspected US missile strikes near Miranshah in North Waziristan on Wednesday killed at least 12 people, some of them thought to be foreigners, local officials said.

'Pressure-cooker bomb'

Gunmen burst into the building in the village of Oghi, some 80km (50 miles) north of Islamabad, early on Wednesday morning.

"About 10 men came, they were all wearing masks. They kicked the doors down, took everyone out of their offices, put them in one place and started shooting," an office administrator told the AFP news agency.

He added that a bomb had been thrown as the gunmen left the building after the attack, leaving a large crater by the door.

According to a local police officer quoted by the Associated Press, the bomb was a detonated by remote control after the attackers had left the building.

"They left a locally made pressure-cooker bomb that exploded soon after the attackers fled the scene, killing NGO people first by gunfire and then with the blast," said Liaquat Shah.

World Vision confirmed that seven members of staff had been injured during the attack....

[incarcerated]

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/03/top_north_waziristan.php

Top North Waziristan Taliban leader Bahadar rumored killed in US strike

By Bill RoggioMarch 11, 2010 10:33 AM
Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate that the top Taliban commander in North Waziristan may have been among those killed in yesterday's swarm attack by unmanned US aircraft in the lawless tribal agency.

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said that Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the powerful Taliban chieftain in North Waziristan, was the target of yesterday's airstrike in the Datta Khel region.

Bahadar is rumored to be among those killed in the strike, according to reports in The New York Times and ANI, but his death has not been confirmed. US intelligence officials are "investigating the possibility that he was killed" but could not confirm the reports.

The strike was carried out by five unmanned US aircraft, likely the Predators or their deadly older brothers, the Reapers. The aircraft launched the attack in two waves. First a volley of four missiles hit a compound in the village of Mizar Madakhel. After Taliban fighters cordoned the area and began to recover bodies, a second volley was fired. Initial reports indicated that 12 Taliban fighters were killed; the The New York Times later claimed a total of 21 killed.

Bahadar is the senior Taliban leader in North Waziristan and one of the most prominent commanders in Pakistan....

[incarcerated]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/12/2844698.htm?section=justin

Pakistan blasts kill 39

Twin suicide attacks have targeted the Pakistani military, killing 39 people in the second attack to hit security forces in the country's cultural capital Lahore this week.

Police said the bombers walked up to Pakistani army vehicles in the densely populated R A Bazaar area, blowing themselves up as people sat down to eat before the main Muslim weekly prayers were to begin....

"The first blast was very small - followed by sounds of gunfire. Immediately after there was a big blast hitting an army vehicle," said Mohammad Bilal, who had just sat down for lunch at a nearby restaurant.

"We have the heads of both the bombers," police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq told reporters.

"There was an interval of 15 seconds between the two attacks. They were on foot. Their target was army vehicles....

[incarcerated]

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Suicide-Attacker-Kills-5-in-Pakistan-87546562.html

13 People Dead in Another Suicide Bombing in Pakistan

13 March 2010
Ayaz Gul
Islamabad
Top military officials in a northwestern Pakistani district say a suicide bomber has killed at least 13 people, including security personnel, and wounded more than 50 others. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for the bombing, the third deadly strike in Pakistan this week.

The latest suicide blast happened in the northwestern district of Swat, where the Pakistani military claims to have largely quelled a Taliban uprising after months of bloody clashes.

Witnesses say the powerful explosion in Saidu Sharif, the administrative center of the mountainous district, caused almost all the deaths on the spot and several people were critically wounded.

The bomber was said to be heading toward a complex of civilian and army buildings in the town. Speaking to local reporters, regional military commander Major-General Ashfaq Nadeem gave details of the incident.

He says that the bomber's age was around 22 years and arrived on board a rickshaw at the main security post. The army general says the man stepped out of the three-wheeler and detonated the device when security guards tried to search him....