 By Bill Roggio Pakistani commandos killed four al Qaeda operatives and detained 27 suspects during a raid on a hospital in a region in South Waziristan under the control of a Taliban leader considered friendly to the government. Pakistani troops surrounded the Hafiz Hospital in Wana, the administrative center of South Waziristan, and killed three “Arabs” and a Sudanese al Qaeda operative.
The Hafiz Hospital is run by a former member of Pakistan’s national assembly. "Commandos and security forces raided the hospital,” a Pakistani security official told Dawn. “Militants fired on the troops and in the gunfight, which lasted more than four hours, four militants and a woman were killed, while 27 others were arrested. One soldier was also injured. The three dead militants appear to be Arabs and one of Sudanese origin.” Pakistani troops raided the hospital after receiving intelligence that the fighters sought treatment from wounds suffered during fighting in the Sherwangi region in the Mehsud tribal areas, where the military is conducting an operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. The Wana region is run by Taliban commander Mullah Nazir. Nazir is not a member of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan; he and other Taliban commanders operate independently of that group. Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.
However, Nazir openly supports Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. More senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed in Nazir's tribal areas during the US air campaign than in those of any other Taliban leader in Pakistan. Nazir’s forces continue to operate across the border in Afghanistan. On Dec. 6, his fighters crossed the border and destroyed an Afghan Army outpost. Earlier this year, just prior to launching a military operation against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Mehsud tribal areas in South Waziristan, the military agreed to a peace deal with Nazir as well as with North Waziristan Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. Nazir and Bahadar are not members of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. Bahadar and the Haqqani Network, which is also based in North Waziristan, are also considered "good" Taliban by the Pakistani government and military. The peace agreement calls for the Pakistani military to be able to move through Nazir and Bahadar's tribal areas without being attacked. Another condition of the agreement prohibits Bahadar and Nazir from providing shelter to fleeing members of the Mehsud branch of the Taliban. But Taliban fighters from the Mehsud tribal areas have sought shelter with Mullah Nazir in the Wazir tribal areas, and the rearguard fighters still opposing the Army's advance are receiving support from Nazir's forces, US military and intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are also providing shelter to fleeing Taliban fighters and covert support to the Mehsud Taliban, and they also shelter al Qaeda leaders and fighters.
 SUSPECTED Taliban militants have kidnapped two French journalists working for France's public television broadcaster and three Afghan companions in the east of the war-torn country, a colleague says. Gunmen snatched the group as they were travelling about 60km from the Afghan capital, a French journalist working with them said. Criminal groups and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul, sparking a nine-year insurgency. "The two journalists, accompanied by their Afghan translator, and the translator's brother and cousin, were kidnapped on the road between Surobi and Tagab," their French colleague said. She blamed the kidnapping on the Taliban, saying they had laid an ambush for the group in Kapisa province. French defence minister Herve Morin, who was visiting French troops in Afghanistan to mark the New Year, confirmed only that the journalists had been missing since Wednesday. "We can't rule out any hypothesis and are doing everything to make contact with them." The journalists' employer, public broadcaster France Televisions, did not formally confirm their abduction. "We have had no news of them for 48 hours," said Paul Nahon, director of documentaries. The journalist and cameraman had been working on a documentary for about two weeks, he said. French troops deployed in Kapisa have launched a manhunt for the five. The Australian
 Yemen's government said Tuesday the U.S. should have shared its warnings about the Nigerian suspect in the botched Christmas Day airline attack, and said it was tightening restrictions on student visas like the one that allowed the young man to enter the country. Information Minister Hassan al-Lozy confirmed that Umar Faruk Abdulmutallab spent two extended periods in Yemen, as recently as this month, and that authorities were trying to determine what he did during that time.
Investigators said he spent at least part of the time studying Arabic at a school in the capital of San'a, where students and administrators described him as friendly and outgoing with no overtly extremist views. As part of the investigation, the principal of a school where he studied was being questioned Tuesday. U.S. authorities have been trying to determine how Abdulmutallab, 23, managed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with explosives even though he was flagged on a watchlist as a possible terrorist. U.S. officials have said he told investigators after his arrest that he received training in Yemen. Al-Lozy said that the U.S. never shared its suspicions about Abdulmutallab with Yemen, a largely lawless country that has turned into a key stronghold for al-Qaida. "We didn't get any notice from the Americans to put this man on a list," al-Lozy said. "America should have told Yemen about this man, as they have of others." Abdulmutallab lived in Yemen for two different periods of time, a year from 2004-2005 and from August-December this year, he said. He arrived in August after receiving a visa to study Arabic in the capital San'a. Yemen's Foreign Ministry said Monday Abdulmutallab received a Yemeni visa after authorities were reassured that he had "several visas from a number of friendly countries." It noted that Abdulmutallab had a valid visa to the United States, which he had visited in the past. The embassy has now been instructed not to issue any more visas to students who want to study in the country without Interior Ministry approval. The San'a Institute for the Arabic Language told The Associated Press that Abdulmutallab was an Arabic student at the school in August. That has raised questions about what he did the rest of his time in Yemen. Administrators at the school said Monday that the director of the school, Muhammad al-Anisi, has spent two days being questioned by Yemeni security officials. He remained in custody Tuesday. Al-Lozy later told The Associated Press authorities are also looking into Abdulmutallab's frequent visits to a mosque in the old, historic part of the city and the people he was with during his stay in Yemen. Students and administrators at the institute said Abdulmutallab was gregarious, had many Yemeni friends and was not overtly extremist. They noted, however, he was open about his sympathies toward the Palestinians and his anger over Israel's actions in Gaza. The students and administrators spoke on condition of anonymity because Yemeni security authorities have ordered them not to talk to the media. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attempted attack on the airliner and said it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. More than 60 militants were killed in airstrikes last week believed to have been carried out with U.S. assistance. FoxNews 
 SAN'A, Yemen — A U.S.-born radical cleric is alive and well following reports he may have been killed in a Yemeni airstrike against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts, friends and relatives said Friday. The government said it targeted a meeting of high-level Al Qaeda operatives in Thursday's airstrike in the remote Shabwa region. It claimed at least 30 militants were killed, possibly including Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who has been linked to the shooter in last month's attack at the Fort Hood military base in the U.S. On Friday, a friend of the cleric, Abu Bakr al-Awlaki, told The Associated Press he was not among those killed. He refused to say if the cleric was attending the meeting. Abu Bakr al-Awlaki was in Shabwa and in contact with the gunmen in control of the area following the strike. He is not related to the cleric, but the two are from the same tribe and carry the same last name. Thursday's airstrikes were the second in a week against Al Qaeda and were carried out with U.S. and Saudi intelligence help. The newly aggressive Yemeni campaign, backed by American aid, reflects Washington's fears that the terror network could turn this fragmented, unstable nation into an Afghanistan-like refuge in a highly strategic location on the border with oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni government said it struck a gathering of senior Al Qaeda figures in Rafd, a remote mountain valley in eastern Shabwa province, where they were plotting new terror attacks. In addition to al-Awlaki, the top leader of Al Qaeda's branch in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Naser Abdel-Karim al-Wahishi, and his deputy Saeed al-Shihri were also believed to be at the meeting, Yemen's Supreme Security Committee said. But Yemeni officials still have no access to the area, which is controlled by armed gunmen and supporters of Al Qaeda, and could not confirm for certain who was killed in the attack. Saudi officials were not immediately available for comment on Friday. In Washington, a U.S. government official who was briefed on the strike told The Associated Press that there has been no confirmation yet of who was killed in the strike. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack. Al-Awlaki was born in the United States and moved back to Yemen in 2002. Al-Awlaki reportedly corresponded by e-mail with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5. People close to al-Alwaki said it is unlikely the cleric would be sitting through a field meeting convened by fighters, considering he saw his role as a scholar and one that gives religious advises and rulings. The cleric's brother, who only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said he also received assurances that his older sibling is still alive. A tribal chief in Shabwa, who only used his alias Abu Mohammed, said he was informed that Anwar al-Alwaki was alive and is unharmed. He refused to elaborate. So far, residents of the area and relatives of those killed say six bodies have been retrieved from the area of the strike and buried. The relatives spoke on condition of anonymity because they were still at the area controlled by the gunmen. FoxNews
 SAN'A, Yemen — Authorities say military operations targeting Al Qaeda hideouts and a training camp in Yemen have left up to 34 suspected militants dead, including four would-be suicide bombers, and led to the arrest of 17 others. Provincial security official Saleh el-Shamsy said airstrikes followed by a ground operation targeting a training camp in Abyan province south of San'a killed 30 suspected militants. Separately, the Interior Ministry said operations were carried out also Thursday in areas outside San'a, killing four would-be suicide bombers and arresting 17 suspected militants. The suicide bombers were in the Arhab district northeast of the capital. Yemen is troubled by a weak central government and a growing Al Qaeda presence. FoxNews
 WASHINGTON: Iraqi militants have regularly used cheap and widely-available software to intercept the feeds of US-operated drones, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Citing senior defence and intelligence officials, the Journal said Iranian-backed Shi'ite insurgents used software programs such as SkyGrabber - available online for $US25.95 ($A28.81) - to capture drone feeds. The practice was uncovered in July 2009, when the US military found files of intercepted drone video feeds on the laptop of a captured militant. They discovered "days and days and hours and hours of proof", a person described as familiar with the situation told the Journal. "It is part of their kits now." Some of the most detailed examples of drone intercepts have been uncovered in Iraq, but the same technique is known to have been employed in Afghanistan and could easily be used in other areas where US drones operate. The US government has known about the flaw since the 1990s but assumed its adversaries would not be able to take advantage of it, the Journal said. US officials said there was no evidence that militants could control the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights, but the vulnerability would allow the unmanned craft to be monitored and tracked. Defence officials told the Journal efforts were being made to fix the flaw, but noted that adding encryption to a decade-old system is tricky and requires upgrading several components of the system linking drones to ground control. One of the developers of SkyGrabber, which is made by Russian company SkySoftware, told the Journal he had no idea the program could be used to intercept drone feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet - no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," Andrew Solonikov told the Journal. The Australian
 PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Grisly ghosts haunt 8-year-old Saira Khan's dreams. Her tiny hands cover her mouth as she tells of the images that come to her at night, images of burnt and mutilated bodies. She heard an explosion last month just a few blocks away from her cousin's home. "I got so scared," she says, her eyes getting wider. "We didn't know what to do, so we just lay on the floor." Peshawar, where Saira lives, is on the front line of Pakistan's war against militants. In October, the Pakistani army launched its most concentrated offensive yet in northwest Pakistan, against the tribal strongholds of some of the country's most ruthless militants. The government said Saturday that the offensive was winding down, although operations were continuing in the area. The militants in turn are fighting back with a vicious bombing campaign. They are striking with frightening regularity anywhere and everywhere in the city. That leaves the people of Peshawar caught in between, afraid, fed up and mistrustful of all sides: the militants, the Pakistani army and the United States, which is seen as supporting the push against insurgents. Peshawar hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded from nearly daily explosions. Dozens of police barricades meant to catch suicide bombers slow the chaotic traffic on bigger roads to a crawl. Schools are shut periodically because of security fears. Ten-year-old Kainat, who goes to Saira's school, calls her hometown scary and telephones her friends all the time now. "I am just worried about everyone," she says. "I talk to them all the time, and I ask, 'how is your mother and your father and everyone is safe?' I just want to know that everyone is all right." The school hides within a 10-foot-high metal gate with two guards watching it. One guard checks the small backpacks of the children every morning with a metal detector. The Taliban has routinely attacked schools, particularly ones attended by girls. More at Foxnews
 PHILIPPINE security forces have secured the territory of a powerful clan linked to the political massacre of 57 people and started disarming its militiamen, officials said. An AFP photographer witnessed armoured personnel carriers patrolling highways in the southern province of Maguindanao and television footage showed police commandos surrounded buildings in major towns controlled by the clan. National police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said security forces had arrested some of the gunmen linked to Monday's massacre while the army said it was hunting for many other suspects. "Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner said on ABS-CBN television. "That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations." He said the army has also disbanded the provincial Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit, militiamen under the control of the family of the alleged massacre mastermind, Andal Ampatuan Jnr. National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said the entire police force which had been providing security at Ampatuan Jnr's office had been relieved. Ampatuan Jnr is the mayor of a town in Maguindanao while his father of the same name is the provincial governor. Police said about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a group of journalists, on Monday. The victims were snatched as they were travelling in a six-vehicle convoy to nominate Mangudadatu as the opposition candidate for provincial governor in next year's elections. They were shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name. Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far, and police are still searching for more possible victims. The Australian
 KHAR, Pakistan — Pakistani troops killed nearly 40 suspected militants Sunday in a series of operations in northwestern tribal areas near the Afghan border, officials said. The army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October, but many militants fled north to escape the fighting. Sunday's attacks, which could not immediately be confirmed, appeared to be targeting areas to which they escaped. The deadliest strike was in Shahukhel, a town in the tribal area of Orakzai, in which at least 12 militants were reported killed and 14 detained in search operations by border forces, according to officials with the Frontier Corps. An attack helicopter also pounded several areas elsewhere in the region, killing at least four militants, intelligence officials said. At least 11 other suspects, including an insurgent commander, were killed in fighting when the army repulsed an attack in the Bajur region, which was the site of a major operation earlier this year, officials said. The battle broke out after an army base came under rocket fire. The military had been tipped off to the attack and opened fire on the militant positions, they said. Officials said 10 other militants were killed in military action elsewhere in Bajur. The military campaign against the Taliban there ended with a declaration of victory in March and continued activity underscores the resilience of the militants who are routed only to return to affected areas. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information. Journalists have little access to Pakistan's volatile tribal regions, which makes it virtually impossible to verify the casualty figures. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Azhar Abbas said there were air strikes in tribal areas but he provided no details. The Pakistani military said in a statement Sunday that five insurgents were killed and one soldier wounded in operations in South Waziristan. The United States has welcomed the Pakistani offensive, but wants the army to do more against the insurgents blamed for violence across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan's army has retaken many towns in South Waziristan but many militants fled and have retaliated with a series of clashes and bombings. FoxNews
 ISLAMABAD — Three suspected militants blew themselves up as police gave chase Saturday in the Pakistani part of disputed Kashmir, authorities said. No other casualties were reported, but the incident underscored fears that militants are preparing attacks in other areas as retaliation for an army offensive under way in the Afghan border region of South Waziristan. The Pakistani military said Saturday that 14 militants and six soldiers were killed over the last 24 hours as part of that operation. The three men in Kashmir fled after police acting on a tip raided their hide-out in the Thori area of regional capital Muzaffarabad, according to senior police officer Sardar Ilyas. Police pursued them and the men detonated explosives on their bodies after being trapped on a mountain, Ilyas said, adding 18 hand grenades, three assault rifles and a pistol had been seized from the hide-out. Security was tightened around government buildings and other potential targets in the city amid fears of violence, Ilyas said. Kashmir is disputed between Pakistan and India, who both claim the territory in its entirety. The two nuclear rivals have fought two wars over the region since gaining independence from British rule in 1947. In northwestern Pakistan, a gas explosion injured one person and damaged a two-story building Saturday in Peshawar. Police initially said it was a bomb but later determined it was an accident. The conflicting statements reflect the atmosphere of fear that has taken hold in Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest and the main gateway to the Al Qaeda and Taliban-infested frontier region. Violence has increased in the area since the army launched the operation in nearby South Waziristan in mid-October. Many militants are believed to have fled the fighting. Senior officers, including the city's police chief, first said the explosion, which partially destroyed the two-story building, was caused by a bomb. But Haroon Babar, a senior police officer, said a bomb disposal squad sent to the site found no explosives. "It seems that a gas pipeline under the wall might have exploded causing the damage," he said. Pakistan helped nurture a generation of Islamic militants after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Following the Soviet withdrawal a decade later, Pakistan helped the Taliban seize control. Many of these militants fled to Pakistan after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. FoxNews
 AT least four militants were killed and five others wounded in a US drone missile strike in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said today. The attack took place in Shanakhora village of North Waziristan, an area where Washington says Islamist fighters are hiding out and planning attacks on Western troops stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan. "It was a US drone attack which targeted a militant compound, killing four militants and wounding five others," a senior security official in the area said. He said two missiles were fired from a US drone. Another security official confirmed the attack. The Australian
 Three men of Pakistani origin denied any wrongdoing Thursday as they went on trial over an alleged plot to stage homicide attacks in Barcelona on orders from the Pakistan Taliban. Police foiled the alleged plan with a series of raids in January 2008 in Spain's second-largest city, after a member of the cell designated to blow himself up got cold feet and alerted authorities, a Spanish prosecutor said. The 11 men on trial include nine men of Pakistani nationality or origin and two from India. They have all pleaded innocent. Malik Qadeer, 33, accused of belonging to a part of the cell tasked with making bombs for the attacks, said he is a butane gas delivery man who knows nothing about electronics or chemicals. "I don't even know how to connect two cables," he told the National Court. Qadeer said he had never even heard the word Taliban until he moved to Spain in 2001, and said he knew nothing of any plot to bomb the metro in Barcelona. "Not even a beast would do that," he said. His 28-year-old roommate, Shaib Iqbal, also denied any knowledge of the alleged plot. One of the plan's alleged ringleaders, 40-year-old imam Maroof Ahmed Mirza, refused to testify. Another accused leader, Mohammad Ayud Elahi Bibi, 65, said he practiced a peaceful version of Islam. After Thursday's session, the trial was scheduled to resume Monday. When the plot was made public last year, it gave Spaniards a chilling reminder of the Madrid terror bombings of March 2004: packed commuter trains ripped apart by 10 backpack bombs that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.
At the time, a general election was three days away, and Islamic militants who claimed responsibility for the Madrid massacre said it was revenge for the presence of Spanish peacekeepers in Iraq. In 2008, public transport was allegedly targeted again, a general election was just two months away and the attack was allegedly planned because Spain has troops in Afghanistan, prosecutor Vicente Gonzalez Mota has said. But there have been doubts as to how close the Barcelona cell actually was to staging what would have been Spain's first suicide terrorist attack. Read more,,,, Source:FoxNews
 KARACHI, Pakistan — Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor.
Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders — and tattoos — exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts. As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society. The four-day event, which was postponed twice due to security fears and amid unease at hosting such a gathering during an army offensive in the northwest, is aimed at showing the world there is more to Pakistan than violence and at helping boost an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people, organizers said. Many of the models, designers and well-heeled fashionistas packing out each night said the gathering was a symbolic blow to the Taliban and their vision of society, where women are largely confined to the house and must wear a sack-like covering known as a burqa. "This is our gesture of defiance to the Taliban," said Ayesha Tammy Haq, the CEO of Fashion Pakistan Week. "There is a terrible problem of militancy and political upheaval ... but that doesn't mean that the country shuts down. That doesn't mean that business comes to a halt." Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani army entered the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a major offensive in the northwest on Friday, as gunmen wounded a senior army officer and a soldier in the capital. The operation in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and Al Qaeda sanctuary in Pakistan, has sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed about 300 civilians and security forces in the past month.
The shooting in Islamabad was the third such attack in about two weeks. The militants hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve as it pushes deeper into the isolated, mountainous region near the Afghan border. But the army pressed ahead Friday, entering Makeen, the hometown of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in August. Troops razed Mehsud's house, an act of vengeance for the hundreds of people the Pakistani Taliban has killed in the country. In Islamabad, assailants opened fire on an army brigadier and a soldier as the two drove away from the officer's home, said police official Khan Khurshid Khan. The gunmen sped away after the attack, he said. Hospital official Arshad Khokhar said the brigadier and the soldier were in stable condition. A brigadier is equivalent to a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. It was unclear if the officer was involved in the South Waziristan offensive, which was launched in mid-October. On Oct. 22, gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a brigadier and a soldier riding in an army jeep in what was believed to be the first assassination of an army officer in the capital. Less than a week later, gunmen attacked another brigadier as he was driving to a bank with his mother, but they escaped unharmed. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion fell on the Pakistani Taliban, which has declared war on the government for alleged being un-Islamic and supporting the U.S. war on terror. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistan's army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday. The deals increase the chances of an army victory against Pakistan's internal enemy No. 1, but indicate that the 3-day-old assault into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may have less effect than the U.S. wants on a spreading insurgency across the border in Afghanistan. Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban. In exchange, the army will ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because revealing their identities would compromise their work. An army spokesman described the deal as an "understanding" with the men that they would stay neutral. The agreements underscore Pakistan's past practice of targeting only militant groups that attack the government or its forces inside Pakistan. Western officials say South Waziristan is also a major sanctuary and training ground for Al Qaeda operatives. The mountain-studded region has been under near-total militant control for years and is considered a likely hiding place for Usama bin Laden. The United States has responded cautiously to the initial Pakistani strategy, publicly welcoming the offensive but saying little about the specific choice of targets. "We have a shared goal here, and the shared goal is fighting violent extremism," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday. Kelly said he was unaware of an agreement to keep some militant factions out of the fight for now, but other U.S. officials said the strategy is not surprising or necessarily worrisome. Because the faction loyal to Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud poses the most direct threat to the Pakistani government and army, it is the logical first target, U.S. officials briefed on the offensive said. While a broad offensive that takes on all comers at once might be ideal, it is not practical, U.S. military officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the United States has no direct role in the operations of another country. U.S. officials are watching the offensive closely with the hope that the Pakistani army will not pull back after the initial onslaught, and will eventually widen the offensive to cover other militant factions and the more forbidding ground of North Waziristan. Read more here,,,, Source: Foxnews
 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi Interior Ministry says the two Al Qaeda militants killed in a recent shootout snuck into the country from Yemen and were planning to carry out attacks in the country. The ministry said in a statement Sunday that the two men, who had disguised themselves as women, were Saudi and on a militant wanted list. Six Yemenis working with them were also arrested. Youssef al-Shihri and Raed al-Harbi were on the country's list of 85 most wanted militant suspects living abroad and were part of Al Qaeda's operations in Yemen. Tuesday's shootout in southern Saudi Arabia also killed a soldier. Source: FoxNews
 Martin Fletcher, Kabul "There's no question about it: amnesty would be part of this initiative," Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb said. The insurgents might have blood on their hands, but "who doesn't?" he asked. "We've killed people that they would say 'These were entirely innocent people'." The Afghan government and the coalition should consider releasing detainees who renounced violence, he said in Kabul. Drawing on lessons he learned in Northern Ireland, General Lamb argued that neither side could win through force alone. "The idea that we just continue to fight to a bloody end - from my experience of 38 years of soldiering - would be nonsensical," he said. "We can't fight our way to success." The only way to end the eight-year war was to win over the "vast majority" of insurgents fighting because they were being paid by the Taliban, had grievances, or had been brainwashed, he said. Many were "young men who fight well, for a bad cause", he said. "Some will have been drawn in because they believe they are doing the right thing." General Lamb, 56, helped to persuade Sunni insurgents to break with al-Qa'ida in Iraq - a turning point in that war. He said the Taliban's hardline Islamic leadership was beyond redemption: "As night follows day, they will contest us, and challenge us.
We either incarcerate them or kill them or they leave." But he said he doubted that the hardliners account for more than 10 per cent of the insurgency. The rest, he broadly categorises as "upset brothers" or "guns for hire", and insists that they can be persuaded to switch sides through dialogue and economic inducements. Some will be angry at corruption, or will have lost relatives in coalition airstrikes, or may feel the West has reneged on its promises. Some will have been brainwashed to believe the coalition has come to fight Islam. Others will have taken up arms because the Taliban pays them $US300 to plant a roadside bomb: "If you have no job, no employment and a fairly uncertain future - and you need to feed your family, or want to match your father's derring-do against the Russians - then you'll be inclined to take that," he said. Read more here,,,, Source: The Australian
 By Khurram Shahzad MILITANTS who tried to storm Pakistan's army headquarters have taken 10 to 15 hostages after a firefight that left six soldiers and four attackers dead, officials say. At least six insurgents armed with automatic weapons and grenades drove up to the compound yesterday and shot their way through one checkpost in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, before being stopped by security forces at a second post. Four militants were killed but at least two managed to flee during the fierce firefight, barricading themselves into a security office near the headquarters, as gunship helicopters circled overhead, the military said. "There are more than two terrorists who have taken some security personnel as hostages. Efforts are under way for their safe recovery," the military's spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said on state-run television. "Security forces have surrounded the terrorists. We are trying to recover the hostages safely," he added. "According to our assessment the number of hostages is 10 to 15," Gen Abbas later told private TV channel Geo. "There could be four to five terrorists inside the building," he said. The audacious attack in the city adjoining the capital Islamabad unfolded just before midday, when the militants dressed in army uniforms hurled grenades and opened fire at an entrance to the heavily fortified army command centre. "There were at least six attackers. Four were killed. Two have been traced and surrounded by the troops," said an official with the army's media wing. The attack comes amid a surge in insurgent strikes, as analysts say the Islamist Taliban militia try to deter an army offensive into their tribal stronghold along the mountainous border with Afghanistan. Gen Abbas said in an earlier interview with Geo that the militants were dressed in army uniforms and "were armed with sophisticated weapons and grenades." "They came in a van and tried to enter from gate one to gate two in the sensitive area," he told the TV channel. "Six soldiers were martyred in the attack," he added. A security official requesting anonymity said that a brigadier and a lieutenant-colonel were among the dead.
 By Augustine Anthony in Pakistan "They wore army uniforms and tried to enter the headquarters area but when they were stopped they opened fire and hurled a hand grenade," a security official told Reuters. The sprawling headquarters is in the city of Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad. The suspected militants had driven up to the gate in a white Suzuki van that was carrying explosives, the official said. The attack ended with all four attackers killed, a military spokesman told Pakistani television. "All the four terrorists have been killed. The fighting is over now. The situation is under control," Major General Athar Abbas told private TV channel Geo in a live interview. Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants who have launched numerous attacks over the past couple of years, most aimed at the security forces and government and foreign targets. Soldiers sealed off roads leading to the headquarters and a helicopter was hovering over the area. Source: The Australian
 KABUL — A battle in western Afghanistan that included airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban militants after an insurgent ambush left three U.S. troops dead, an Afghan official said Sunday. The hours-long battle took place Saturday in the western province of Farah after a complex attack that killed three Americans and seven Afghan troops, said Afghan army spokesman Maj. Abdul Basir Ghori. The insurgent ambush involved two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Sunday. Mathias confirmed that fighting in the west continued after the ambush, but she could not provide any casualty figures. Ghori said about 50 militants were killed in Saturday's battle, but no other Afghan officials could immediately confirm that figure. During the clash, a coalition airstrike hit a home and killed a woman and a teenage girl, said Afghan police spokesman Raouf Ahmadi. The fighting took place in the Bala Baluk district of Farah province, a region controlled by militants that has been the site of huge battles in the past, some that have caused high numbers of civilian casualties. Saturday's violence came the same day Afghan officials said 50 civilians, security forces and militants were killed in a spate of attacks around Afghanistan, including 20 noncombatants killed in two roadside bomb explosions. Violence has risen steadily across Afghanistan the last three years, and militants now control wide swaths of the countryside. The U.S. and NATO have a record number of troops in the country, and the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is soon likely to request thousands more. Support for the eight-year war is waning in the United States and Europe as troop deaths rise and Taliban attacks spike. A record number of U.S. and NATO troops have died in Afghanistan already this year. Source: FoxNews
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