Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | November 03, 2008
STRAINED relations with Pakistan loomed yesterday as an immediate challenge for the next US president as Islamabad stepped up its attacks on Washington following fresh CIA missile strikes against Islamic militants in the country's tribal areas.
Even as the latest attacks are reported to have killed al-Qa'ida's propaganda chief as well as senior Taliban figures, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani railed against them yesterday, insisting they were "counter-productive" and warning the new president would be "under compulsion" to reverse the policy of launching cross-border raids.
At the same time, in an unusually frank statement, a senior Foreign Ministry official in Islamabad warned that relations between the two nominally close allies in the war on terror were extremely strained "politically and diplomatically".
Launching an appeal to world leaders to help persuade the new US president to reverse the policy, Mr Gilani said he would raise the matter with US ambassador Anne Patterson, who has twice in the past month been castigated by Pakistani officials.
Local media reported yesterday that so-called "spies" accused of planting microchips used to guide the CIA Predator drones to their targets inside Pakistan have been publicly executed by al-Qa'ida amid signs that the controversial missile strikes are successfully disrupting the terror organisation.
Pakistani newspapers said the release of a video by al-Qa'ida's so-called "media cell" showing the "confessions" of the spies and their subsequent executions, was aimed at "spreading a wave of terror among the local people to keep them from helping the Government".
Yesterday it was disclosed that among those killed in the weekend missile attacks was Abu Jihad al-Masri, an Egyptian described on the US State Department's website as al-Qa'ida's propaganda chief.
"The strike was aimed at a vehicle carrying Abu Jihad and two others. The target was successfully hit and all three people were killed," a senior security official said yesterday. Security analysts in Islamabad described his killing as "a major event" and said that, with other recent targeted assassinations, it "shows that for all the bluster and fury from Pakistan, the missile strikes ... are disrupting al-Qa'ida".
Senior Taliban militants working closely with al-Qa'ida militants in the country's tribal areas were also said to have been killed or wounded.
The latest deaths follow last month's killing, also in a Predator attack in South Waziristan, of Khalid Habib, appointed by Osama bin Laden only last January to head the al-Qa'ida operations in Pakistan.
Top al-Qa'ida chemical weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar is also said to have been killed in recent months.
But Mr Gilani argues the strikes are "counter-productive", because while they achieve short-term military goals, they cause outrage in tribal areas and encourage militant recruitment.
STRAINED relations with Pakistan loomed yesterday as an immediate challenge for the next US president as Islamabad stepped up its attacks on Washington following fresh CIA missile strikes against Islamic militants in the country's tribal areas.
Even as the latest attacks are reported to have killed al-Qa'ida's propaganda chief as well as senior Taliban figures, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani railed against them yesterday, insisting they were "counter-productive" and warning the new president would be "under compulsion" to reverse the policy of launching cross-border raids.
At the same time, in an unusually frank statement, a senior Foreign Ministry official in Islamabad warned that relations between the two nominally close allies in the war on terror were extremely strained "politically and diplomatically".
Launching an appeal to world leaders to help persuade the new US president to reverse the policy, Mr Gilani said he would raise the matter with US ambassador Anne Patterson, who has twice in the past month been castigated by Pakistani officials.
Local media reported yesterday that so-called "spies" accused of planting microchips used to guide the CIA Predator drones to their targets inside Pakistan have been publicly executed by al-Qa'ida amid signs that the controversial missile strikes are successfully disrupting the terror organisation.
Pakistani newspapers said the release of a video by al-Qa'ida's so-called "media cell" showing the "confessions" of the spies and their subsequent executions, was aimed at "spreading a wave of terror among the local people to keep them from helping the Government".
Yesterday it was disclosed that among those killed in the weekend missile attacks was Abu Jihad al-Masri, an Egyptian described on the US State Department's website as al-Qa'ida's propaganda chief.
"The strike was aimed at a vehicle carrying Abu Jihad and two others. The target was successfully hit and all three people were killed," a senior security official said yesterday. Security analysts in Islamabad described his killing as "a major event" and said that, with other recent targeted assassinations, it "shows that for all the bluster and fury from Pakistan, the missile strikes ... are disrupting al-Qa'ida".
Senior Taliban militants working closely with al-Qa'ida militants in the country's tribal areas were also said to have been killed or wounded.
The latest deaths follow last month's killing, also in a Predator attack in South Waziristan, of Khalid Habib, appointed by Osama bin Laden only last January to head the al-Qa'ida operations in Pakistan.
Top al-Qa'ida chemical weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar is also said to have been killed in recent months.
But Mr Gilani argues the strikes are "counter-productive", because while they achieve short-term military goals, they cause outrage in tribal areas and encourage militant recruitment.
Source: The Australian
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