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| ‘US poised to raid militant hideouts in Pakistan’ |
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Congressmen claim Islamabad ‘not doing enough’
WASHINGTON: American commandos are poised to stage “hot pursuit” raids into Fata to stem mounting Taliban attacks against US troops in Afghanistan and to disrupt resurgent al-Qaeda operatives’ efforts to map strikes against the US homeland, according to three Texas Congressmen briefed during a trip to the region.
The lawmakers — Reps. Gene Green, D-Houston, Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo — told the Houston Chronicle in separate interviews that the plans for stepped-up US military operations were in response to Pakistan’s failure to disrupt terrorist training camps and cross-border attacks from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The Bush administration is recalibrating US operations in the region because of a 40 per cent increase in violent attacks against US-led forces in Afghanistan that have pushed US casualties for the month of June beyond the monthly toll in Iraq, the lawmakers said.
Osama bin Laden, who has a $50 million bounty on his head, is widely believed to be hiding among the 3.3 million people in the rural region. The United States has about 34,000 troops in Afghanistan, a number expected to rise to nearly 40,000 with reinforcements next year.
The Texas Congressmen said they devoted much of their delegation’s separate meetings with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani last Friday to urging additional action against militants in the tribal territories.
But they said Pakistani officials rejected resumption of the joint US-Pakistani operations that ended in 2003, calling instead for additional US military assistance and intelligence cooperation to target seven or eight terrorist leaders operating in the tribal areas.
Pakistan’s ineffective campaign makes it “imperative that US forces be allowed to pursue the Taliban and al-Qaeda in tribal areas inside Pakistan,” McCaul insisted. “If we don’t do something now, they’re going to strike us again (in the United States) and it is going to be out of this area.”
Cuellar said that “either Pakistan does more or we will be taking things into our own hands,” adding: “If our troops are fired on, there will be hot pursuit into that territory.” The lawmakers’ comments suggested that the Bush administration might have resolved the bureaucratic turf battles that the New York Times recently reported had delayed implementation of a secret administration plan to authorise US Special Forces to deploy teams into Pakistan’s tribal areas to track, capture or kill terrorist leaders.
Army Lt Col Mark Wright, serving as a spokesman for the Defence Department, said US forces “remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training and to conduct joint operations should they desire.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. US military commanders in Afghanistan already have exercised hot pursuit on a limited basis to chase Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda militants into adjacent Pakistani areas.
AFP adds: On the other hand, experts said the US was facing a major dilemma as Pakistan grappled with surging militant violence fuelled by groups. After Monday’s deadly suicide bombing in Islamabad and alleged Pakistani involvement in another such attack in Kabul, one intelligence report said Pakistan lacked “willingness and ability” to take on the rapidly rising threat posed by extremism and militancy.
“The fact is that the civilian government and the country’s military establishment appear to be losing control of the situation,” warned private US intelligence firm Stratfor in a report to clients after the twin attacks.
In Pakistan, it said, there was a “national lack of acknowledgement that the country is being torn apart by religious extremism.” Stratfor predicted “it is only a matter of time before Washington escalates its unilateral military operations deeper into Pakistani territory” — a move experts warned could worsen “collateral” damage and fuel anti-Americanism.
US airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan is now regarded as almost a daily affair. “Washington finds itself in a difficult position,” said Robert Hathaway of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The latest US strategy of launching unilateral air strikes on suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan is causing casualties on innocent civilians and fuelling anti-American feelings, he said.
It also does not promote the objective of convincing the Pakistanis that the fight against militancy and radicalism is their fight, he said. Most people believe a long-term campaign to provide education, jobs and establishing a functioning set of governmental institutions in the tribal lands could help improve people’s lives and eventually ease the security crisis. “That’s a long-term strategy but the problem is here and now, and it’s not yet apparent that anyone either in Washington or in Islamabad really knows how to connect the two — the long-term solution with immediate problems,” Hathaway said.
He blamed the Bush administration for failing to adopt a coherent policy towards Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. “Seven years after 9/11, the US is worse off in Pakistan than it was, American interests in the region were worse off than they were, and Pakistan is worse off than it was,” he said.
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KP floods toll reaches 408
By Nisar Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Casualties due to rain and flood-related incidents were on the rise as more deaths were reported from various areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday.
Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain p more |
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‘US has no plans to send troops to Pakistan’
WASHINGTON: The United States (US) has brushed aside an Afghan demand to strike at militant safe havens across the border, saying it has no plans to send combat troops to Pakistan.
“We have no plans to s more |
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PM’s directive to HEC is illegal
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the NA Committee on Education has formally sought from the prime minister withdrawal of his recent directive barring the Higher Education Commission (HEC) from directly reporting to t more |
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Flash floods kill 102 in a narrow Shangla strip
By Ikram Hoti
BISHAM, Swat: Out of over 500 people killed by torrential rains and flash floods across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 102 were killed only in a 10-kilometre narrow mountainous strip in Shangla in the 78 hours of Wednesda more |
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95 victims of plane crash identified, Malik tells Senate
By Muhammad Anis
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday claimed that 95 out of the 152 dead bodies of the plane crash victims had been identified and 78 handed over to relatives.
Responding to points of orde more |
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Zardari to visit UK despite Cameron snub
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari is going ahead with his four-day official visit to Britain, starting from Aug 3, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in categorical terms on Friday.
This b more |
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14 die in G-B rains
By our correspondent
GILGIT: Fourteen people, three of them girls, died on Friday in various parts of Gilgit-Baltistan as torrential rains continued to wreak havoc in Gilgit-Baltistan, senior government officials said.
Four more |
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Mullen asks ISI to shift its focus ‘strategically’
WASHINGTON: Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has asked the Pakistani spy agency to “strategically shift its focus” as any ties with the terrorist outfits that had come to light in more |
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Security concerns main reason
By Murtaza Ali Shah
LONDON: President Asif Ali Zardari’s official visit to the UK from August 3 to 7 will cost the taxpayers of Pakistan tons of British pounds as sources have revealed the details of what arrangements are being ma more |
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Fake degrees: SC rejects appeals of three MPs
By Sohail Khan
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday dismissed the appeals of one National Assembly and two provincial assembly members and upheld the decisions against their fake degrees.
A three-member bench of more |
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ECP to check assets of all MPs from next polls
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: In what would serve as a great step towards political reformation in the country, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is finalising a proposal to verify all the declarations of the members of t more |
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Indo-Pak experts want to use water as tool for cooperation
NEW DELHI: Use water as a tool to build trust and cooperation, urged delegates at an Indo-Pak seminar ‘Water is life’ organized by Aman ki Asha and the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation here to discuss the more |
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Cameron’s remarks: ISI team cancels visit to UK
ISLAMABAD: Following the shocking remarks made by the British Prime Minister David Cameron against Pakistan, an ISI’s anti-terrorism experts delegation has cancelled its visit to Britain.
Defence sources more |
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CCP issues notice for tying ticket with food coupons
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued a show cause notice to a company for tying the sale of cinema ticket with food coupons.
According to the CCP, the show cause notice was more |
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US needs to change war strategy: Haroon
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, said that there might have been a relationship between the ISI and the Taliban, but in a war such contacts were considered necessary.
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briefs...
Average inflation for FY11 projected at 11-12 pc
By Shahnawaz Akhter
KARACHI: In an unexpected move, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday tightened the monetary policy stance by enhancing th more |
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ISSN 1563-9479 
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