Scores Killed in Spate of Attacks on Shiites in Iraq

Siites killed by sunnis and scores killed is this what is Islam and f there are sectrian blasts and killings how can they call it Jihad or wotever. Baghdad reverberates with blasts and by whom by their own people. NYT

By SAM DAGHER

Published: August 7, 2009

BAGHDAD — A series of bombing attacks against Shiites on Friday near the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad killed at least 36 people and wounded nearly 100 others, officials said.

The bombings, which appear intended to polarize Iraqis and inflame sectarian passions, coincided with the end of an important Shiite religious occasion, and came one week after five Shiite mosques in Baghdad were bombed in coordinated attacks, killing at least 29.

The worst bombing on Friday took place at a Shiite Turkmen mosque on the northern fringes of Mosul. A car bomb detonated while the mosque and adjacent hall used for funeral services were packed with people, killing at least 30 people and wounding 75, local security officials said. Residents said the explosion was heard in the center of the city.

It was the second devastating attack to strike near Shiite Turkmen mosques in recent months. In June, a truck bomb exploded as worshipers left Friday Prayers in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 68 people and wounding 200.

Mosul is one of the most violent places in Iraq. Insurgents linked to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a home-grown militant group, and former Baath Party, once led by Saddam Hussein, remain active. Under the security agreement between Iraq and the United States, most American forces are now garrisoned at a base in Mosul.

In Baghdad on Friday, a roadside bomb planted near Hamza Square in the Sadr City district ripped through a minibus carrying pilgrims returning from the holy Shiite city of Karbala, killing three people and wounding eight others, according to an official at the Ministry of Interior, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

An hour later, two roadside bombs exploded simultaneously in the path of other minibuses transporting pilgrims in and around Sadr City, killing three and wounding 16, the official said.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had flocked to Karbala to celebrate on Thursday the birth of Imam Mahdi, the Shiite saint who is believed to have gone into a state of occultation in the year 873 at the age of 5. Shiites believe he will re-emerge for the salvation of mankind.

Separately, Sheik Jalaleddin al-Saghir, a cleric and a senior member of Parliament, said during his weekly sermon at the Buratha mosque in Baghdad that the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, had been the target of an assassination attempt by one of his own guards.

“Recently, a member of the prime minister’s own private security detail wanted to assassinate the prime minister,” said Sheik Saghir, a leader in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq party, which is part of Mr. Maliki’s ruling Shiite coalition. “Someone from his inner circle and I were told this by the prime minister himself.”

Sheik Saghir did not provide other details, and Ali al-Adeeb, a senior member of Mr. Maliki’s Dawa Party, said he had not heard about such an attempt.

Mohammed Hussein contributed reporting from Baghdad and an Iraqi employee of the New York Times from Mosul, Iraq.

Q+A: Mehsud probably dead, but will it help win the war?

Well atlast the Pakistani intelligence sources and the US dillydallying and not so sure of the Baitullah mehsud's killing in the Drone attacks, now the clouds are clear. The authorities in Pakistan while they are openly confirming the US is informal and still cautious. Reuters gives a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of the death and the impact on afpak.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - As information poured in on Friday that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed two days ago by a U.S. missile strike, a whole series of questions arise over what it would mean for Pakistan, Afghanistan and U.S. policy and Western military forces in the region.

The following is look at the possible repercussions for the war against Taliban guerrillas in the borderlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

WILL IT HELP WESTERN FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN?

Probably not much, at least directly, according to some senior diplomats in Islamabad.

But the United States will be happy to have eliminated a militant leader whose actions were destabilizing Pakistan to the point where concerns were growing over the safety of the Muslim nations nuclear assets.

Mehsud may have controlled the largest number of fighters, variously reckoned at between 10,000 and over 20,000, and they have mounted attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan, but they have mostly attacked the Pakistan government and security forces over the past two years.

The Mehsud stronghold in the mountains of South Waziristan is not contiguous with the Afghan border.

One diplomat watching military affairs said that strategically, Mehsud was effectively helping to guard the back of those Taliban factions located next to the border and who are heavily involved in the Afghan insurgency.

These groups include Maulvi Nazir Wazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan, who both control more than 5,000 fighters apiece. And also the powerful Haqqani faction that operates mainly out of North Waziristan and southeast Afghanistan. The United States and other Western allies hope that Pakistan will one day turn on these groups, as well as the Afghan Taliban using Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan as their safe refuge. Analysts say Pakistan has failed to take on any of these groups seriously, and in some cases adopts a permissive stance.

WOULD MEHSUD'S DEATH HELP PACIFY PAKISTAN?

His death is a major coup for Pakistan.

It shows efforts to push back the Taliban tide in the northwest going in the right direction, with the army already in the final stages of a campaign to clear the insurgents out of Swat, a valley far to the east, closer to the capital Islamabad.

But the removal of Pakistan's Public Enemy No. 1 leaves open the question of whether the army will now carry out any major ground offensive against Mehsud's stronghold.

The terrain is perfect for guerrilla warfare and the army would be up against far more battle-hardened fighters, including Uzbeks and Chechens, than they encountered in Swat, so the risk of heavy casualties was high.

Some analysts believe the more likely strategy will be to keep routes in and out of the Mehsud lands blocked, while continuing air attacks, and also seeking to isolate the Mehsuds from other Taliban factions with different tribal loyalties.

Meantime, there is a clear risk of revenge attacks by Mehsud's loyalists inside Pakistan.

Qari Hussain, one of Mehsud's lieutenants, is regarded as the main overseer of the suicide bomb campaign and other high profile attacks inside Pakistan, and he is still alive.

Hussain belongs to the Mehsud tribe but he is also a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group based in the central province of Punjab that forged ties with al Qaeda well before the September 11. 2001 attacks on the United States.

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE STATE OF U.S.-PAKISTAN

RELATIONS?

It shows the U.S. and Pakistan military are working closely together, regardless of Pakistan's public opposition to U.S. drone attacks on Pakistani territory.

CIA-operated drone aircraft began targeting Mehsud territory in June, after the Pakistani government told its army to go after the militant leader.

There is a chance that the United States might have an understanding with Pakistan on which Taliban groups to focus on next, which could also hurt the Afghan insurgency.

WHO COULD TAKE OVER FROM MEHSUD?

Mehsud was the Taliban commander with the clout to forge a single group out of the various Taliban factions in Pakistan, and his successor might struggle to impose himself within the loose-knit confederation of regional commanders.

The leader of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar will undoubtedly play a role in trying to unify competing chieftains.

The hot favorites to become the new head of the Pakistani Taliban are: Hakimullah Mehsud, Maulana Azmatullah and Wali-ur-Rehman.

Hakimullah Mehsud commands an estimated 8,000 fighters in three tribal regions -- Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram -- and is an important leader in the Taliban hierarchy.

Azmatullah also hails from the Shahbikhel, the same branch of the Mehsud tribe that Baitullah Mehsud's Bromikhel clan belongs to. He is an important commander and a member of the Pakistani Taliban shura, or council of leaders.

Wali-ur-Rehman is another shura member, and is a former spokesman for Baitullah. Some analysts see him as the most likely contender to take over Mehsud's group if not the whole Taliban movement in Pakistan.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Three get death for Gateway, Zaveri Bazar blasts

The 2003 Mumbai blasts case has been taken to a logical end when the court awarded capital punishment to the accused. Well its a 6 year ordeal for the victims and they are vindicated and the victims that lost lives shall atleast lay in peace. TOI

MUMBAI: Two of the three terrorists sentenced to death on Wednesday for the 2003 Mumbai blasts became the second couple to be marked for the
gallows after Sriharan alias Murugan and Nalini were given the rarest of the rare sentence for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

Fahima Syed and her husband Hanif Syed were given death along with Ashrat Ansari for cold-bloodedly planting bombs that killed 52 innocents at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazar on August 25, 2003.

The first thought Fehmida Syed had on being sentenced to death - along with Hanif - was of her children. ``My children will be orphaned,'' she said in tears.

Hanif (52), who had flashed a `victory' sign on conviction last week, wore a sombre look as judge M R Puranik read out a terse one-line pronouncement, ``To he hanged by the neck till death.'' Later, when he was being led away, Hanif blamed the prosecution for the harsh sentence he had received. On Tuesday, he had pleaded for mercy, saying that his crime had been an emotional reaction to the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

Ashrat Ansari (38) remained deadpan and merely remarked that justice was blind.

Fehmida (49) is also the second woman to be given the death sentence for a terror act after Nalini, the co-conspirator in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991. Nalini, whose sentence was commuted to life, is currently in jail awaiting the outcome of her mercy petition. Murugan remains on death row.

The Pota court on Thursday rejected all pleas of leniency and held that the brazen terror attack fell under the ``rarest of rare'' category of cases where the death sentence was well deserved.

Relatives of several blast victims were present outside the court premises and welcomed the decision that came six years after the attack. ``The punishment will send out a strong message to terrorists,'' said special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. The defence advocates, however, indicated that they would appeal against the sentence.

Hanif, who planted the bomb that killed 16 people at the Gateway, used to be an autorickshaw driver from Andheri who was brainwashed in Dubai by Pakistani nationals to carry out the blasts, purportedly to avenge the communal riots in Gujarat. His wife, Fehmida, was proven by the prosecution to be a close aide and conspirator who chose the attack targets. Ansari, a former `zari' worker, was Hanif's friend who planted the bomb that killed 36 persons at Zaveri Bazar.

Initially, there were five accused on trial, but two of these - Hassan Batterywala and Rizwan Ladoowala - were discharged from the case by the Supreme Court in 2008 in keeping with the recommendations of the POTA review committee.

In his 389-page order, Judge Puranik said that the confessional statements given by the convicts were ``reliable'' as was the testimony of Shivnarain Pandey, a taxi driver. The bomb at the Gateway was planted in Pandey's cab, but Pandey himself escaped death due to sheer providence and later became the star witness who identified Hanif and Fehmida in court.

Hanif, Fehmida and Ansari, who said they had acted ``emotionally'' in response to the Gujarat communal riots, had pleaded to be spared the death sentence. However, Nikam showed the court that they had, in fact, acted in cold blood and planned their attacks well. ``When a gelatin blast at Ghatkopar in July 28, 2003, claimed just two lives, they decided to use RDX to take a heavier toll in the twin blasts a month later,'' he said. ``They enjoyed the act of killing and deserve no mercy.''

Why they dropped the bomb?

Philip Wheaton, author, historian, and Episcopal priest says the war was over before the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the U.S. government wanted a chance to see the weapon at work.

32 killed in bomb blasts, airstrike in Afghanistan

This IANS report says more bloodshed in attacks and counter attacks by Al qarda / talean forces and the NATO / western countries lead forces in kandhar. Well seems the war is costing more lives per ego.

Thu, Aug 6 08:17 PM

Kandahar, Aug 6 (DPA) A roadside bomb explosion and a US airstrike killed 26 civilians in southern Afghanistan while six troops also died in fighting across the country, officials said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said Thursday that a US soldier, serving under the banner of the alliance forces, was killed fighting the Taliban in western Afghanistan, while five police were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province.

The civilians killed in the first attack were on their way to a wedding in the Darwaishan area of Garmsir in the southern province of Helmand Wednesday, Assadullah Sherzad, the provincial police chief said.

Sherzad held militants with the Islamic extremist Taliban, who are most active in Helmand, responsible for the attack.

The Afghan Defence Ministry also confirmed the blast, saying in a statement that the attack once again showed the intentions of 'terrorists' towards the Afghan people.

Afghan civilians have been the main victims of Taliban-led attacks and fighting between insurgents and international forces.

In the latest incident of civilian deaths at the hand of international forces, five farmers were killed by a US military airstrike Wednesday, according to Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, district governor of Zherai in southern Kandahar province.

'The farmers were loading cucumbers on a truck when the American forces hit them from their aircraft,' Sarhadi said, claiming that he had gone to the scene and saw no weapons.

A US military spokeswoman confirmed the attack, but said the men were insurgents spotted loading ammunition on a truck. She said the incident was under investigation.

Civilian deaths have long been a source of tension between the government of Hamid Karzai and NATO forces. Karzai has repeatedly warned the alliance of failure in the fight against terrorism if the killing of civilians continued.

NATO's new secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who came to Kabul on a two-day visit Wednesday, told a press conference that the alliance forces would do their 'utmost to reduce the number of civilian casualties to an absolute minimum.'

'We cannot accept the loss of innocent life,' Rasmussen said, adding: 'Unfortunately in an armed struggle we will see civilian casualties.'

Meanwhile, five Afghan police were killed and three others wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Nad Ali district of Helmand province Thursday morning, Helmand police chief Sherzad said.

In another incident, a US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb explosion in western Afghanistan Wednesday, the NATO said in a statement.

More than 100,000 international troops deployed from 42 nations are currently stationed in Afghanistan. Over 60,000 of that number are US soldiers.

DPA

New Tamil Tiger head arrested - Sri Lanka

Wow the Sri Lankan govt has mastered in its diplmatic and active pursuasion of LTTE leftovers are not even spared. Reuters on yahoo

Thu, Aug 6 11:38 PM

COLOMBO (Reuters) -- The new head of the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group defeated by the Sri Lankan military after a 25-year war, has been arrested in Thailand, Sri Lanka's military said on Thursday.

Selvarajah Pathmanathan was wanted on two Interpol warrants and took the reins of the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after their defeat in May.

"He has been arrested in Bangkok. That is all we know at the moment," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

There was no immediate comment from Thai officials.

Pathmanathan, better known as KP during his decades running the LTTE's arms and smuggling networks, took over as the public leader of the separatist group after Sri Lanka's military announced victory on May 18 after a 25-year war.

He was the first LTTE official to acknowledge the death of Tiger founder and leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in the closing days of Sri Lanka's offensive on a narrow spit of northeastern coast where they had surrounded the rebels.

Security experts had long suspected Pathmanathan was hiding in southeast Asia.

A Western diplomat assigned to Sri Lanka met him somewhere in the region earlier this year, part of an effort to persuade the LTTE to surrender in the face of an imminent defeat and free civilians they were holding by force in the war zone.

Pathmanathan was believed to have earned millions of dollars procuring weapons for the Tigers and running smuggling operations from bases across the region including Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. Security experts say he had multiple passports.

Some estimates said the LTTE earned between $200-300 million from extortion, weapons sales and drug smuggling. Analysts said part of a brief struggle for Prabhakaran's mantle after the war was to take control of its financial assets.

After the war, Pathmanathan said the LTTE would try non-violent means to achieve its goal of a separate state for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. Among his first initiatives was to try to form a transnational government-in-exile.

C. Bryson Hull

Pak Govt. bans JuD, Jaish and Lashkar

Well they ban with an advisory to change names and take another shape. So the drama has begun of bnning nad renaming self and becomming something new. ANI on Yahoo 

Wed, Aug 5 10:30 PM

Islamabad, Aug.5 (ANI): In a major development, the Government of Pakistan on Wednesday banned 25 religious and other organisations, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashker-e-Toiba.

India has been demanding action for a long time against the JuD, LeT and JeM, which it blames for carrying out several attacks on Indian soil, including the Mumbai attacks and the 2001 assault on the Indian Parliament.

The Pakistani Government has linked a majority of the outlawed groups to terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in Pakistan.

While presenting a list of the banned organisations in the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistani Parliament, the Interior ministry stated that the Sunni Tehrik had been put on a watch list.

The list of organisations included in the list of outlawed groups

Jammat-ud-Dawah (JuD), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), JeM, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muahammadi, Al-Akhtar Trust, Al-Rasheed Trust, Tehreek-e-Islami, Islamic Students Movement, Khair-un-Nisa International Trust, Islami Tehreek-e-Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamiat-un-Nisar, Khadam Islam and Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.

Pakistan banned the JuD after the UN Security Council declared it a front for the LeT in December last year. The LeT and JeM were banned by the country in 2002.

"The list was submitted in a reply to a question raised in the Lower House regarding the banned organisations. The Ministry of Interior presented the whole list of banned organisations that have been retricted from activities from time to time. This is a whole list and contains the recent ones as well which have been banned by the present government for some evidence of them having been involved in anti-state activities," a CNN-IBN news channel report quoted Hasan as saying on Wednesday over the revelation by the Government of Pakistan on ban on various organisations.

Recently, the Government of India has expressed serious concern over the released of Jamaat-ud-Dawah Hafiz Saeed's release by a Pakistani court, who is wanted by India as he is alleged to be the mastermind behind 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Hasan defended that it was not a deliberate action by the Pak government.

"Well. I am sure that you know that he (Hafiz Saeed) was released by the Supreme Court (of Pakistan) and rather the High Court of Lahore. There was no evidence produced against him and all the evidence produced was against the organisations. He is no longer the chief of the banned organisations. You cannot restrict a man released by a court." (ANI)

LeT plans to target Hyderabad, delhi and Kolkata during Independence day

Well this ANI report from yahoo gives out the usual reports from the news during te Independence day / republic day, threats and bomb blasts and suicide attacks.

Thu, Aug 6 10:30 PM

New Delhi, Aug. 6 (ANI): Officials of the Home Ministry have warned that Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba has plans to target three major cities including Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day.

According to a top Home Ministry official, Kolkata and Hyderabad cities are the other two targets of the LeT apart from the national capital (Delhi).

Intelligence agencies have given specific inputs that LeT, responsible for innumerable terror strikes including 26/11 in Mumbai, is planning to target the three metros in the run-up to the Independence Day, the official said.

The information has already shared this information with the State Governments of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.

To keep a strict watch on anti-national elements, searches and regular screening at all the exit and entry points of Delhi is being carried out.

The officials say that the next 10 days are very crucial. "We are taking all necessary steps to foil the designs of LeT to strike at the three cities, the official stated.

The intelligence input shared included an interrogation report of some recent catches of terrorists made along the LoC who claimed that they had been tasked to meet some of the terror cells in these cities to carry out attacks ahead of the Independence Day.

Meanwhile, security at important public places and vital installations, including Delhi Metro and railway stations, bus terminals and crowded marketplaces, has been beefed up.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will unfurl the National Flag and give a speech to the nation from the ramparts of historic Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day (August 15). (ANI)

Baghdad blast walls to come down

Well seems the walls are crumbling! Good god theres change, Things are improving on the ground if not on the walls. BBC

By Natalia Antelava

BBC News, Baghdad

The plan to remove blast walls in Baghdad has led to mixed reactions

The Iraqi government has announced that within the next 40 days all blast walls will be removed from Baghdad.

The building of the walls escalated in 2006 at the height of the sectarian violence.

Many residents complain that the barriers have made the city unrecognisable, but they also say that they have made neighbourhoods safer.

The move comes just a month after US troops pulled out of cities across Iraq.

The news of the removal has provoked mixed reactions.

"It's a good step because it reduces traffic jams and makes us feel that the situation has improved and life is back to normal," said Waleed, who works as a taxi driver in Baghdad.

"But on the other hand, it may encourage more attacks."

Real threat

Since the American withdrawal, the government has been keen to show that it is in full control of the security situation, but many people here wonder whether Baghdad is ready for the move.

"The Americans have just left the Iraqi cities and we have witnessed a rise in terrorist activities," said Mohammed Jasim, a blacksmith in Baghdad.

"We need to keep roads as they are until the security forces are really capable of taking control over the cities. I think the time has not come yet," he added

Violence in Iraq has declined significantly in comparison to two years ago, when people were dying by the hundreds every day.

But explosions, attacks and roadside bombs are still part of everyday life here, and the government admits that insurgents, including al-Qaeda, still pose a very real threat.

Last Friday 30 people were killed in a series of bomb attacks that targeted Shia mosques across the city.

On Tuesday night, five people were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Dora, one Baghdad's predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods.

And so the question is whether giving Baghdad its face back could also create new opportunities for those who do not want the violence to stop.

Deaths in Iraq city blast

More deaths after the US Troops Pulled out but who are they killing anyway? Is this Islam ? Are they Real fighters that are killing innocent people ? Aljazeera

Violence had decreased throughout Iraq but attacks against security forces are still common [AFP]

At least five policemen have been killed and another 10 wounded in a bomb blast in the south of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

The bombing on Wednesday targeted a police patrol in the district of al-Doura, officials said.

The bomb was planted on a road in the al-Athouriyeen neighbourhood in al-Doura, the Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.
Security forces sealed off the area and the wounded were taken to a nearby hospital.
Bus passengers kidnapped

The attack came after US troops withdrew from urban centres in June in line with a security pact between Baghdad and Washington calling for US forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
Attacks increased in the run-up to the pullback, with 437 Iraqis killed in June - the highest death toll in 11 months. But attacks against security forces are still common in the capital.
Meanwhile, at least 11 Iraqi passengers were kidnapped when their bus was seized on the road from Baghdad to the southern city of Hilla, 40km to the south of Baghdad, police sources told the German Press Agency, dpa.
The source said that security forces were searching the area for the kidnappers.
Source: Agencies

Afghan Bomb Kills Wedding Goers On Tractor

The HELLMUND province seems to be real Hell, I didnt have any idea of the place until I found it in a few articles a couple of months ago. It seems to be a hotbed. SKY

8:30am UK, Thursday August 06, 2009

A roadside bomb has killed at least 20 people riding a tractor to a wedding in southern Afghanistan, police have said.

Helmand provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad said women and children were among the 21 dead and five wounded in Garmser district.

Roadside bombs are frequently used to attack foreign and Afghan forces in the region.

The Afghan Ministry of Defence said that the bombing on Wednesday killed at least 20 people.

Taliban fighters

Thousands of US Marines and British soldiers are pushing into Helmand, one of the centres of the Taliban insurgency.

The foreign forces are trying to extend Afghan government control and ensure stability ahead of the August 20 presidential elections.

The insurgents, who pledge to disrupt the vote, have markedly ramped up attacks and increased their use of roadside bombs this year.

The United Nations says civilian deaths in the escalating war soared by 24% during the first half of 2009, compared with the same period last year.

The UN blamed most of the casualties on Taliban attacks launched with little regard for civilian lives.

UK forces in Afghanistan

The UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan also pointed to stepped-up military operations by the United States and its allies, especially airstrikes.

But the report said the number of civilians killed by the Taliban and other "anti-government forces" during the first half of the year was double those attributed to the US-led coalition and Afghan government forces.

The UN called that a "significant shift" from 2007, when the coalition was responsible for 41% of civilian deaths.

July was the bloodiest month for the US and Nato in the nearly eight-year war.

Hundreds dead in Nigeria clashes

Fighting between government troops and a radical Islamic sect in Nigeria has left hundreds dead, according to reports. .. Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn_news
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Normalising Sri Lanka? - 04 Jul 09 - Pt 1

Now that the civil war between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority has ended, will there ever be true reconciliation that allows Sri Lanka to develop as a normal country? About 10 per...
Now that the civil war between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority has ended, will there ever be true reconciliation that allows Sri Lanka to develop as a normal country?

About 10 percent of the Tamil population almost 300,000 people are still being detained in 30 military-guarded camps, with no end in sight. This only feeds Tamil suspicions that they are destined to remain second-class citizens.

And after decades of media repression by the government during the war with the Tamil Tigers, in the name of national security, will things improve for freedom of speech and criticism?

Pakistani Taliban chief alive, says relative

The Reuters confirms that Pakistani Taliban chief is safe. God he's saved again ?! How on earth do they get the wind of such things ? Reuters

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was not present when a U.S. missile killed his wife on Wednesday in an attack that targeted the house of his father-in-law, a relative said.

"Baitullah is safe and alive," Iqbal Mehsud, a cousin of the militant's dead wife told Reuters by telephone.

A security official said at least two militants were also killed in the strike on the Makeen village in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region.

(Reporting by Alamgir Bitani, writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Sanjeev Miglani)

Nine militants killed in six encounters in J&K

Seems the lull will not b permanant the peace will never return and we want talks ..?! Talking talking to pak n for what to get more infiltration nad more men killed. PTINEWS

Srinagar, Aug 5 (PTI) Nine militants, including a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, were killed in six encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said today.

Five infiltrating militants were among seven ultras killed in four separate encounters with security forces in Kashmir valley, while a self-styled section commander of Hizbul Mujahideen and an infiltrator were killed in Jammu region since last evening, the spokesman said.

The slain militant commander identified as Noor Mohammed alias Mansoor was gunned down in a gunbattle in Doda district.An AK 47 rifle and three magazines were recovered from the slain militant.

Another militant was killed by the army during an infiltration bid across the LoC in the Poonch sector.

Western concern grows over Somali war fallout

reuters report

By William Maclean, Security Correspondent

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Australia's arrest of four suspected attack plotters said to have links to a Somali group may suggest radicalised veterans of war in the Horn of Africa are willing to return to the diaspora to strike Western targets.

The four, all Australian citizens with Somali and Lebanese backgrounds, were arrested in dawn raids on 19 properties across Melbourne, after a seven-month investigation involving several forces and Australia's national security agency ASIO.

The group in question is al Shabaab, which is conducting an international recruitment campaign backed by al Qaeda's propaganda network for fighters to join its push to take power in Mogadishu and impose strict Islamic rule.

Although al Shabaab plays up its link to the transnational network of Osama bin laden, attacking Western targets overseas is not its primary goal, which is overwhelmingly domestic.

But one consequence of its use of ethnic Somalis from the millions-strong diaspora community may be that veterans head home with the funds or skills to attack Western targets of their own volition, Western counter-terrorism officials say.

"The chances are extremely remote that this was Shabaab saying 'Go off and strike Australia'," said Will Hartley, Editor of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, a security consultancy and information provider.



"NOT MERELY RESISTANCE FIGHTERS"

"Far more likely is that Australia was targeted by Australians who had been in Somalia, were radicalised, and were intent on carrying out or expanding the jihad themselves ... not under Shabaab orders," he said.

The arrests coincide with a surge in Western concern about radicalisation of some Western converts to Islam. On July 29 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder warned of increased "radicalisation" of Americans going abroad and then returning home with the "aim of doing harm to the American people."

He was speaking two days after seven people were arrested in North Carolina for allegedly plotting attacks overseas. Holder also expressed concerns about a group of young Somali men leaving the Minneapolis area to join al Shabaab.

Acting Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus said those arrested on Tuesday had planned to storm a suburban Sydney army base with automatic weapons and kill those inside.

Prosecutors told the Melbourne Magistrate's Court they had evidence some of the men had taken part in training in Somalia and at least one had engaged in frontline fighting in Somalia.

Western officials worry that today's chaotic Somalia resembles Afghanistan in the 1990s, when militants including bin Laden's associates used the safe haven of ungoverned areas on the Pakistan border to plan attacks on Western targets.

In a speech posted on militant web forums on July 30, an al Qaeda leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, appeared to urge Somali supporters of Shabaab to widen their list of targets beyond the nationalist agenda of ending foreign occupation - a reference to African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.

"You and we are mujahideen in the Cause of Allah, fighters against the enemies of Allah. We are not merely resistance fighters who push out enemies who came to our lands," he said, according to a translation by the Site Intelligence Group. He added: "We fight to drive out the foreign occupation from our lands ... and to eliminate every regime or law that disagrees with our faith, and so that Islam alone rules our lands and so that all mankind are servants of Allah alone."

Rashid Abdi, a Somalia expert at the International Crisis Group, said al Qaeda's internationalist rhetoric in support of al Shabaab on militant chatrooms and Web sites had helped widen the group's appeal among radical communities around the world.

And al Shabaab's own propaganda has drawn parallels between itself and the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgencies in Algeria and Chechnya, in an apparent attempt to attract hardcore militants elsewhere in the world to join its fight.



AL QAEDA ORBIT

But domestic Somali politics was also a driver in al Shabaab's "moving into the al Qaeda orbit", Abdi said.

Al Shabaab, which holds swathes of south and central Somalia, has been enraged by Western and African backing for a new government formed this year and feels it would already have defeated the administration if it had not been for this support.

The United States has offered military support to Somalia's government, including more than 40 tonnes of weapons and ammunition, to help it fight insurgents, a senior U.S. official has said. It has also offered training for security forces.

Shabaab's radicalisation "is a function of what is going on militarily and politically on the ground," Abdi said.

"They feel besieged, they feel that their victory has been snatched from them largely because of Western interference... You can see why the west is now more of a target for al Shabaab." (Editing by Janet McBride)

EDITORIAL: Is Pakistan a threat to Afghanistan?

A very nice convincing article by dailytimes never seen it in the mood. May be it reflects the true feelings of pakistani authorities.

A House of Commons report published in the United Kingdom says that “the UK faced more threat from inside Pakistan than from Afghanistan’s Helmand province”. The Labour-chaired Commons foreign affairs select committee report also raises the alarming spectre of Al Qaeda, “which has shifted its focus into Pakistan”. The committee that issued the report was told by an expert that “a direct attack on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons infrastructure could not be ruled out”.

Clearly, there is pressure behind the comment “the threat in the form of Al Qaeda and international terrorism can be said more properly to emanate from Pakistan” that seeks to downplay the importance of Helmand where British troops face the Taliban attackers. But the committee was frank in outlining why the British force had taken such a drubbing in the southern province: the troops were thin on the ground and that the strategist could not estimate the full measure of resistance that would be faced in Helmand.

More reasons were given by the committee for lack of success: the government was distracted by Iraq during its planning of the Helmand operation, “made wrong assumptions about Afghan expectations and gave unclear direction to the armed forces”. Reliance on the Afghan police was undermined by corruption among the Afghan personnel and poor support from the local population because of “cultural insensitivity” among the British soldiers plus the perennial problem of collateral damage that the local people simply could not understand.

After all this, to say that threat is now from inside Pakistan is an allegation that few will take seriously. British soldiers never wanted to fight the war which the UK only took on because of its status of a close ally of the US. It would have preferred to be with the other NATO forces engaged in areas of low or no conflict. The Helmand “theatre” was ill-planned, too few troops were deployed to reduce the popular backlash back home where no one wanted to fight Al Qaeda even though the 7/7 bombings had been carried out in 2005 in the UK by Al Qaeda. The committee also says that some British soldiers are “too fat to fight”.

Pakistan says Al Qaeda leaders are not in Pakistan and those in the UK who think they are should give proof or information about their whereabouts so that Pakistan can go for them. Al Qaeda has owned up to directly attacking Islamabad when it bombed the Danish embassy and is obviously an enemy of Pakistan. That is why Pakistan says it faces a threat from inside Afghanistan where terrorists are being trained in special camps for infiltration into Balochistan. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mr Rehman Malik stated that President Karzai had promised action against the camps, but now Kabul has officially denied there are such camps inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan went through a bad patch when the nation was divided over the Taliban and thought Al Qaeda did not exist. Today, after the gelling of a national consensus, the Pakistan army is achieving more successes against the terrorists than the NATO forces have achieved in Afghanistan since 2001. But Pakistan has its old demons to contend with too — its demons of state-backed jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and the menace of non-state actors that are now affiliated with Al Qaeda. It is also reaching out to India to restart a dialogue that could lift the pressure it feels on the eastern border to mobilise more fully against the Taliban and any Al Qaeda elements.

The fact is that the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda is going far better in Pakistan than in Afghanistan where there is an international force equipped with sophisticated weapons that only the rich states can afford. Pakistan is doing a better job without the advantage that the NATO forces have with American drones. At this stage, the UK parliament should realise that its best bet is strengthening Pakistan in its war against the terrorists. Pakistan’s sustaining power will come from economic assistance and regional diplomacy that makes possible a realistic dialogue between Pakistan and India that moves the two old rivals beyond the Mumbai attacks, to normalisation and economic interdependence that the Indian prime minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, also clearly wants. *

Iraqi troops detain deputy leader of Ansar al Islam

 Wow some news comming out of Iraq. long war jounal

By Bill RoggioAugust 4, 2009 1:25 PM

Iraqi Security Forces backed by US advisors conducted a major bust in northern Iraq. Ten members of the al Qaeda-linked Ansar al Islam, including the group's deputy leader and the chief fiancier, were captured during a raid in Mosul.

Mosul's SWAT and the Iraqi Army teamed up to capture Fakri Hadi Gari, who the US military said is the deputy commander of Ansar al Islam. Gari, who is also known as Abu ‘Abbas and Mullah Halgurd, is thought to be the "operational director" for the group's terror activities. Gari has also served as a recruiter, financier, and a facilitator of Ansar al Islam recruits "across the borders of Iraq."

During the raid, Ansar al Islam's emir, or leader, of the financial unit was also captured, along with eight other operatives.

The northern city of Mosul remains a focal point of Sunni terror groups. Nine terror groups, including Ansar al Islam and al Qaeda in Iraq, remain active in Mosul. The city's proximity to Syria, a major conduit for foreign fighters entering Iraq, and the historic ethnic divisions between Arabs and Kurds keep Mosul a contested city.

Background on Ansar al Islam and its links to al Qaeda and Iran

Ansar al Islam is a radical terrorist group comprised of Kurds and Arabs. It has aligned itself with al Qaeda and receives support from Iran. The group operates in northern Iraq. On March 22, 2004, Ansar al Islam was officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US Department of State.

The terror group was founded by Mullah Krekar in December 2001. Krekar united the various Kurdish Islamist groups under the banner of Ansar al Islam and then seized a series of villages in northeastern Iraq along the border with Iran. Ansar al Islam then imposed a Taliban-like style of government in these villages.

Ansar al Islam established a series of camps and a crude chemical weapons factory in the town of Halabja. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is thought to have run a camp with the approval of Ansar al Islam. These camps were later destroyed during the US invasion in April 2003. US and Kurdish forces killed an estimated 250 members of Ansar al Islam during the assaults.

The group survived the US onslaught and was taken over by Abu Abdallah al Shafi in late 2003. Shafi swore fealty to Osama bin Laden. Leadership conflicts between Ansar al Islam and Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq prevented the merger of the two groups, but Shafi's group remained an al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq. Ansar al Islam leaders and fighters are known to have trained in al Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mullah Krekar, who was taught Islamic law under Osama bin Laden's late mentor Abdullah Azzam in Pakistan, entered Norway during the summer of 2002 after being deported from Iran. From Norway, Krekar has been funneling money to fund terrorist activities in Iraq. Krekar contnues to be the spiritual leader of Ansar al Islam. Krekar has traveled to Iraq several times since 2005, according to the US Treasury Department. "During one of his longer stays in northern Iraq, Krekar appears to have recruited and trained combatants," the agency said.

The US Treasury Department identified Krekar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Dec. 7, 2006. But Norway has been unable to deport Krekar to the US because his case has been tied up in Norwegian courts. Although Krekar has been in and out of prison in Norway, the courts have said there is not sufficient evidence to hold him.

Ansar al Islam has been behind major terror attacks against the two secular Kurdish political parties. As the insurgency grew, Ansar al Islam conducted bombing and suicide attacks against Iraqi civilians as well as US and Iraqi forces.

Since the US invasion of Iraqi in 2003, Ansar al Islam has received direct support from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Captured members of the group have said that the Iranians have been supplying safe houses in Iranian Kordestan and providing fighters with weapons, cash, and medical treatment.

Kurdish officials have accused Iran of controlling Ansar al Islam's actions in Iraq.

"From time to time Iran uses them [Ansar al Islam fighters] as a pressure card to make trouble for us," claimed Salam Omer Ibrahim, the mayor of the Iraqi border city of Said Sadiq in October 2007. "They're saying, 'If you help our opposition, we have ways to respond'."

Success in Afghanistan lies where religion and politics meet

Well this is one of the few sensible articles that I read in he near past on Afghan and Af Pak relation to Al qaeda and the total controversy confusion in the area.

Success in Afghanistan lies where religion and politics meet

US counterinsurgency strategy must take account of Pashto-Islamist justice.
By Chris Seiple

from the August 4, 2009 edition


Arlington, Va. - It is not often that one hosts an influential Pashtun Islamist for 10 days. So, when the chief minister of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), Akram Khan Durrani, visited America for the first time a few years ago as my guest, I wasn't quite sure what to say when we first met. I found myself asking, why do you do what you do?

He replied: "I believe that I will stand before God on the last day and be held accountable for whether or not I governed my people with justice." I told him that I believed something similar.

The idea of "justice" – of an orderly, moral governance – is deeply appealing to the 40 million Pashtun Muslims who live on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan ("Af-Pak") border. Unless the American counterinsurgency strategy understands and respects this principle, no amount of troops or drones will prevail.

The chief minister later invited me to Pakistan several times as his guest, providing me with unique access to the people there. Conversations with Mr. Durrani and other Pashtun leaders, religious and political, revealed a deep resentment for Washington and Islamabad. America had abandoned them after the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, leaving the NWFP overwhelmed with 6 million Afghan refugees. And Islamabad had never properly funded the NWFP and tribal areas, resulting in widespread poverty, rampant illiteracy, and poor police protection for the Pashtun people.

The multiple Islamist, mostly Pashtun, groups that now make up the Taliban use this perceived injustice to their advantage. They enter a village and establish Islamic courts that prohibit "un-Islamic" activity such as pornography. They adjudicate local disputes, and prosecute local criminals. They then kill the local tribal leaders, providing no alternative to their rule. The people accept this "justice" because they have no choice – their local government is unwilling or unable to stand up to the Taliban.

A US counterinsurgency strategy should focus on demonstrating a vision of just governance that is different from the insurgents. To be sustainable along the Af-Pak border, that vision must account for a Pashto-Islamic understanding of justice.

Islam is indelibly interwoven into the Pashtun identity and will frame how justice is conceived and received.

And the tribal-religious culture varies locally, shaping how grievances about security and public services are voiced in particular valleys and villages.

These local grievances are often rooted in the long-standing injustice of the boundary that the British drew between Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1893. This border artificially separates the world's largest ethnic group without its own state. This colonial fact, at least in the Pashto-Islamic mind, punctuates all understanding of justice.

And finally, no matter where the boundaries are drawn, the Pashtun people do not like armed foreigners in their land – from Arabs, Chechens, and Uzbeks who belong to Al Qaeda to the NATO coalition and Pakistani forces that are fighting them.

Unfortunately, America's efforts do not seem to actively consider this understanding of justice.

In Afghanistan, the US has established "reconstruction teams" in each province since 2003 to facilitate civilian-military aid from America to the local government.

By most accounts, the results have been mixed. Amid short-term staffing and a lack of guidance, coordination, and funding, there is no discernible evidence that those responsible for coordinating the reconstruction teams have given comprehensive consideration to how the Pashtun-Muslim people understand justice.

That said, Afghanistan is the easy part. Our efforts will make no difference there unless there is better governance on the Pakistan side of the border. Washington has not stressed or funded governance reform in the border regions with Islamabad. The Pakistani Army's offensives, focused on bombing and artillery, and ongoing drone strikes kill too many civilians. Such actions enhance the Taliban, preemptively defeating US counterinsurgency strategy and its focus on providing the people the essential security and services they need.

In cooperation with our allies, effective US counterinsurgency strategy should:

•Enable local cease-fires, gathering local religious and tribal leaders to listen to grievances and governance suggestions;

•Convene a grand gathering of religious and tribal leaders from throughout the region to discuss the international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan that divides the Pashtun people, as well as the removal of all foreigners from the "Af-pak" boarder areas;

•Understand that a Pashto-Islamic approach to justice is critical to governance in the border regions;

•Incorporate this understanding into our strategic communications and policies through new training programs;

•Establish cross-cultural training programs for US and NATO personnel, civilian and military, before their deployment to Afghanistan.

•Engage the Pashtun diaspora. They know the language, the faith, and bring skill sets not found in our military and civilian agencies. They also represent the potential for financial investment in Afghanistan and Pakistan;

•Build and equip the local police – they know the culture best and are the bridge back to good governance. The NWFP government's recent call to hire 25,000 retired army personnel as police officers is a step in the right direction.

Understanding a Pashto-Islamic concept of justice and governance is not a panacea and does not promise success. But there will be no success without it.

Chris Seiple is the president of the Institute for Global Engagement, a former Marine infantry officer, and the author of "The US Military/NGO Relationship in Humanitarian Interventions."

SCRATCHED across Pashtun hearts!

Wel the History of Afghanistan and Pashtun feelings is well researched. Hardnews

It is now only a question of time before the demand for the reunification of all their people becomes a rallying call for the Pashtun nation across the artificial, colonial Afghan border
Mohan Guruswamy Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has put Balochistan on the Indo-Pak agenda. So why not Pashtunistan?
Just as Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan in 1948, the Pashtun homelands that now make up the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA) were annexed by the British just 70 years before they departed from the sub-continent. It's a pity few in India know what really Pakistan is all about. Even today they dare not refer to the NWFP and FATA as Pashtunistan or Pathanistan or anything that would confer upon them a sub-nationality within Pakistan. As it is in the case of Punjab, Sind and Balochistan.

Let's go back a bit into the past before we attempt to undo the present.

In 1886, a Russian army fresh from its conquest of the Oasis of Merv, in today's Turkmenistan, occupied the Panjdeh Oasis near Herat. It was also the time of 'The Great Game'. Britain immediately warned Russia that any further advance towards Herat would be considered as inimical to British- Indian interests.

As a consequence of the May 1879 Treaty of Gandamak after the Second Afghan War, Britain took control of Afghanistan's foreign affairs. This treaty also gave Britain control over traditional Pashtun territory west of the Indus, including Peshawar and the Khyber Pass.

After the Panjdeh incident a joint Anglo-Russian boundary commission, without any Afghan participation, fixed the Afghan border with Turkestan, which was the whole of Russian Central Asia - now Kirghizistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Thus, as a consequence of the competition between Britain and Russia, a new country, the Afghanistan we know today, was created to serve as the buffer.

In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand, began work on delineating Afghanistan's eastern border with India. The poetess Marya Mannes wrote: "Borders are scratched across the hearts of men/ by strangers with a calm, judicious pen/ and when the borders bleed we watch with dread/ the lines of ink across the map turn red."

The cartographer's pen moved nonchalantly across the Pashtun homeland, drawing a new border disregarding history, tradition and tribal affinities. The line ran remorselessly through homes, villages, fields, common lands and grazing grounds, and dividing tribes and even families. Thus those whom God hath joined together were put asunder by man.

Sir Olaf Caroe who served in British India's NWFP from 1916 to 1934, and who was the last British governor of the NWFP in 1946-47, is also the author of The Pathans, described as the locus classicus of Pathan history. Caroe emphatically states that historically Pashtuns/Pathans and Afghans refer to the same people. The Pashtuns, who live east of the Durand Line, inhabit the mountainous areas and are made up of tribes such as the Afridis, Orakzais, Shinwaris, Bangash and Turis. West of the Khyber, in today's Afghanistan, live the Pashtuns consisting mainly of two great tribes - the Durranis, also known as Abdalis and Ghilzais.

In 1901, the British created the NWFP de-linking Pathan lands from Punjab. They further divided NWFP into settled districts that were directly administered by the British and five autonomous Tribal Agency areas ruled by local chieftains, but with British agents keeping an eye on them, as in the Indian princely states. From the very beginning the Durand Line was not an international border but a line of control (LoC). The Simon Commission Report of 1930 stated quite explicitly: "British India stopped at the boundary of the administered area."

Despite this candid assertion in 1947, the British handed over the five autonomous Tribal Agencies to Pakistan after sponsoring an acquiescing tribal jirga. The Afghan government immediately objected to this stating that the five Tribal Agencies belonged to the same category as the 562 Indian princely states which were each given three options - of joining India, Pakistan or remaining independent. But to no avail.

Pakistan continued the tradition of allowing the Tribal Agencies to administer themselves and did not send any administrators or police or military into the area till it began sending its military in conjunction with US forces in pursuit of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists.

Centralised rule over all the people living in this area, which was first established by Ahmad Shah Abdali, later Durrani, devolved upon Amir Abdur Rahman (1880-1901) when it was created as a buffer state between the Russian and British empires. Abdur Rahman was Bismarckian in his methods and used the most ruthless methods to forge a new nation. In the course of his 20-year rule of almost continuous warfare he managed to create an Afghan nation, albeit somewhat truncated, bound by one law and one rule. He ruled with the help of an annual subsidy of Rs 1.2 million from the British, which was later raised to Rs.1.8 million in 1893.

Lord Curzon, who visited Amir Abdur Rahman in 1894, in his winter palace in Peshawar, wrote: "No previous sovereign had ridden the wild Afghan steed with so cruel a bit, none had given so large a measure of unity to the kingdom; there was not in Asia or in the whole world a more fierce or uncompromising despot."

In 1901, Abdur Rahman's son, Habibullah, succeeded him. When he informed Curzon of his accession, the viceroy coolly informed him that the treaty with his father was a "personal" one and that a new treaty had to be considered. Habibullah responded to this chicanery by insisting that a new treaty should also acknowledge his status as the sovereign ruler of Afghanistan and its "dependencies" - quite clearly suggesting that he did not consider the Durand Line as an international frontier and that it was merely, in today's parlance, a line of control (LoC). The British quickly agreed to resume the subsidy and also pay the arrears.

Soon after the First World War broke out, a joint Turkish and German mission visited Kabul and promised the Amir a huge quantity of arms and 20 million sterling in gold in return for stirring up trouble among the Muslims in Central Asia and India.  Armed with this, Habibullah tried to bargain with the British for his neutrality for return of control over Afghan foreign policy and "dependencies". He was assassinated in February 1919. Not surprisingly, the identity of his assassins was never established.

His son Amanullah succeeded Habibullah. In May 1919, Amanullah began what the Afghans called their 'War of Independence', now generally called the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Afghan forces crossed the Durand Line into the NWFP. Tribesmen on both sides of the Durand Line rallied to the Afghan cause. But the Afghans ran into a new weapon. Fighter aircraft - which dropped bombs on Kabul and Jalalabad.

Soon, the Afghan appetite for war was somewhat squelched. The Treaty of Rawalpindi that followed gave the Afghans control over their foreign affairs, but the NWFP and the Tribal Agencies remained in British India.

In the Civil War that resulted as a result of Amanullah's attempt to hurriedly modernise Afghanistan, the British supported Gen Nadir Khan who quickly seized Kabul and proclaimed himself the ruler in 1929. But Nadir Khan did not live long and was assassinated in 1933 by a former student of the Amania School, which was the hotbed of the nationalist movement in Afghanistan. The main objective of this movement was the recovery of territory across the Durand Line. Zahir Shah took over next and ruled till 1973 when his cousin and brother-in-law, the former Prime Minister Sardar Daoud Khan, ousted him.

Nadir Khan's son, Zahir Shah, was only 19 when he became king. Though he reigned, it was his father's brothers who governed. Some historians call this the avuncular period. This period ended in 1953 when Daoud Khan took over as prime minister.
Daoud Khan was a nationalist committed as much to the recovery of lost territory as he was to modernising Afghanistan. The advent of Daoud also coincided with the advent of John Foster Dulles who was no less committed to the single-minded pursuit of the 'containment' of the Soviet Union, as Daoud was to the Pashtunistan issue.

In 1954, Pakistan joined the SEATO and CENTO (Baghdad Pact) military alliances, more to gain military and political support against India rather than any commitment to the US policy of containment. Daoud too had sought military and economic assistance from the US. But with Pakistan as its chosen ally, the US turned its back on Afghanistan. Daoud then turned to Russia for assistance.

The Cold War in this remote, inaccessible part of the world now became a confrontation for the recovery of lost Afghan territories as a result of unequal treaties imposed by Britain. In September 1960, the irritations manifested into a crisis when Afghanistan and Pakistan went to war. A year later the Afghan government snapped diplomatic ties with Pakistan and closed the border with it.
It pushed Afghanistan closer to the Soviet Union. It became dependent upon it for essentials like food and energy. It fostered closeness to Russia that would sow the seeds for the future communist takeover of Afghanistan as thousands of civil and military officials went to the USSR for training and many were converted to the communist ideology.

The disastrous effects of the closed border cost Daoud his job in 1963. It took ten years before Daoud came to power again by deposing Zahir Shah. Once again Daoud revived the Pashtunistan issue.

The 1971 break-up of Pakistan (the creation of Bangladesh after the India-Pak war) created stirrings for separation in Balochistan as well and a training camp for Balochi fighters was set up in Kandahar. Bhutto retaliated with bomb blasts in Kabul and Jalalabad. Meanwhile, Daoud fell out with Russia's Leonid Brezhnev in 1977 and the communists toppled him the following year.

In 1979, the new Afghan government formally repudiated the Durand Line. But Cold War lines were drawn and modern history's longest period of continuous war ensued. For the 30 years since, Afghanistan has been beset by a cruel and callous war, the like the modern age has not seen.

Afghans are now seeking to determine their own future. But the Pashtuns still remain divided by an arbitrary Line of Control scratched across the heart of their nation.

In recent times, Afghan and Pakistani forces now in the Tribal Agencies ostensibly in pursuit of Al Qaeda, have clashed at various points along the Durand Line. It is now only a question of time before the demand for the reunification of all their people becomes a rallying call for the Pashtun nation.

Even the internal dynamics within Afghanistan now demand it. There is much unfinished business here. If the Pakistanis now insist on putting self-determination for Kashmir on the agenda, let's also put self-determination for Balochistan and Pashtunistan on the same agenda.

Rocket attack on Afghan capital

The Taliban is still surviving, may be somethings wrong with the war on terror, too much of noice or is it not being able to win over the pashtun.BBC

Aftermath of rocket attack in Kabul

Suspected Taliban militants have fired a series of rockets into the Afghan capital, Kabul, as security fears mount ahead of elections due this month.

Police say nine rockets fell on the city. Two people were injured but there were no deaths.

Elsewhere a suicide bomber killed five people and a provincial governor escaped an apparent assassination bid.

Insurgent attacks have increased in the run-up to presidential and provincial elections due on 20 August.

A bomb attack in the western city of Herat on Monday killed at least 12 people and injured more than 20.

'Very loud'

The rocket attacks on Kabul began in the early hours of the morning.

Attacks have increased in the run-up to the presidential election

The BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says the rockets fell across the city, suggesting this may have been a co-ordinated attack from more than one firing position.

Afghan intelligence sources say the main firing point was to the north of the city.

Most of the missiles fell onto empty ground, but one exploded near a senior Afghan general's house in the diplomatic area, close to the US and British embassies, as well as to Nato headquarters.

The explosions were followed by several bursts of rifle fire in the centre of the city.

"It was very loud, just as we were praying," said Kabul resident Ismail Khan.

Another eyewitness Abdul Wali Zai said since the attacks took place early in the morning when the streets were empty, there had been no casualties.

Our correspondent says Kabul residents will have been reminded of the civil war of the early 1990s, when much of the south of the city was reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of people were killed in continuing salvoes of indiscriminate rocket fire.

Until now the Taliban have not been able to mount sustained attacks of this sort since they fell in 2001.

The latest attack shows both their increased strength and their capacity to change their tactics to put pressure on international forces in the run-up to the vote, our correspondent says.

'Sabotage'

Kabul's deputy police chief, Mohammad Khalil Dastyar, blamed Taliban fighters.

"They're just trying to sabotage and create tension in Kabul," he told the Associated Press news agency.

The Kabul attacks come a day after the attack in Herat targeted a police convoy, killing and wounding both police and civilians.

On Tuesday, police in Zabul province said a suicide attacker walked up to an intelligence agency vehicle in a busy market and blew himself up.

An intelligence official and four civilians were killed, police said.

Separately, the Interior Ministry said the governor of Wardak province survived unharmed an apparent assassination attempt just outside Kabul.

Last week the Taliban explicitly threatened to disrupt the elections.

Tens of thousands of foreign and Afghan forces have been deployed to try to ensure security for the vote.

Rocket attack on Afghan capital

The Taliban is still surviving, may be somethings wrong with the war on terror, too much of noice or is it not being able to win over the pashtun.BBC

Aftermath of rocket attack in Kabul

Suspected Taliban militants have fired a series of rockets into the Afghan capital, Kabul, as security fears mount ahead of elections due this month.

Police say nine rockets fell on the city. Two people were injured but there were no deaths.

Elsewhere a suicide bomber killed five people and a provincial governor escaped an apparent assassination bid.

Insurgent attacks have increased in the run-up to presidential and provincial elections due on 20 August.

A bomb attack in the western city of Herat on Monday killed at least 12 people and injured more than 20.

'Very loud'

The rocket attacks on Kabul began in the early hours of the morning.

Attacks have increased in the run-up to the presidential election

The BBC's David Loyn in Kabul says the rockets fell across the city, suggesting this may have been a co-ordinated attack from more than one firing position.

Afghan intelligence sources say the main firing point was to the north of the city.

Most of the missiles fell onto empty ground, but one exploded near a senior Afghan general's house in the diplomatic area, close to the US and British embassies, as well as to Nato headquarters.

The explosions were followed by several bursts of rifle fire in the centre of the city.

"It was very loud, just as we were praying," said Kabul resident Ismail Khan.

Another eyewitness Abdul Wali Zai said since the attacks took place early in the morning when the streets were empty, there had been no casualties.

Our correspondent says Kabul residents will have been reminded of the civil war of the early 1990s, when much of the south of the city was reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of people were killed in continuing salvoes of indiscriminate rocket fire.

Until now the Taliban have not been able to mount sustained attacks of this sort since they fell in 2001.

The latest attack shows both their increased strength and their capacity to change their tactics to put pressure on international forces in the run-up to the vote, our correspondent says.

'Sabotage'

Kabul's deputy police chief, Mohammad Khalil Dastyar, blamed Taliban fighters.

"They're just trying to sabotage and create tension in Kabul," he told the Associated Press news agency.

The Kabul attacks come a day after the attack in Herat targeted a police convoy, killing and wounding both police and civilians.

On Tuesday, police in Zabul province said a suicide attacker walked up to an intelligence agency vehicle in a busy market and blew himself up.

An intelligence official and four civilians were killed, police said.

Separately, the Interior Ministry said the governor of Wardak province survived unharmed an apparent assassination attempt just outside Kabul.

Last week the Taliban explicitly threatened to disrupt the elections.

Tens of thousands of foreign and Afghan forces have been deployed to try to ensure security for the vote.

We must ensure security of future generations: Gotabaya

Its good to be cautious but not too suspicious of your own people. The LTTE is a spent force and the Sri lankan Got now has to concentrate more on uplifting its people rather than suspecting the poor beings, who already had enough of the bloody war. THE HINDU

B. Muralidhar Reddy
COLOMBO: Brother of Sri Lankan President and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that future generations should be saved from terrorism even as the government announced that de-mining of areas earlier under the control of the LTTE is a top priority.
Addressing a War Hero commemoration event held at a local college on Sunday, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa said, “We should teach our youth and our children to love this country and make every effort to preserve the glory won by the valiant efforts of our gallant men and women. We should also save our future generations from terrorism.
For thirty years national leaders and governments of this country failed to end the scourge of LTTE terrorism, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa led this country to this ultimate feat and what more he is also a product of Nalanda,” he told the function.
On 2nd of August 2002, when the Nalanda Old Boys Association first took into organising a war hero commemoration, all hopes of defeating terrorism militarily were blown away from this country. Both people and leaders of this nation were sceptic of defeating the LTTE, yet Nalanda College against all odds led the way organising religious events and commemorations for those at the forefront.
Separately, the government said the de-mining process is under way in the liberated areas. “The LTTE terrorists, once called themselves as the ‘sole representative’ of the Tamil community, have heavily laid land mines in these areas to obstruct the humanitarian mission launched by the Sri Lankan security forces to liberate over 3,00,000 Tamil civilians from LTTE clutches,” said a statement.
It said India had already extended its fullest corporation to the de-mining process sending logistical and manpower assistance and several foreign governments have also financially assisted the de-mining process.
Terminal
In another development, the public observation terminal of the Katunayake International Airport opened on Monday after being shut for several years due to security reasons. General Manager of the Airport H.S. Hettiarachchi said the terminal was modernised at a cost of two million rupees.
Meanwhile, the government said that it had taken steps to meet the housing demand in the North. The districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi, according to a survey, need 2,00,000 housing units.
Internews reported that Pope Benedict is sending funds to CARITAS Sri Lanka to provide relief service for the Vanni war displaced.

Pak watchers flay govt as Saeed walks free, call for new response

Well its for everybody to see, Letting ff the hook of a prominent cruel JUD operative is like endorsing al qaeda ET

4 Aug 2009, 0516 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The latest development in the Hafiz Saeed case has brought the focus back on the government's handling of the Pakistan policy and
raised questions on the effectiveness of handing over evidence to Pakistan.

India's policy towards Pakistan was hotly debated in Parliament last week. The continued inaction against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, who masterminded the Mumbai attacks, is certain to reduce the elbow room for the prime minister to offer more concessions to the neighbour.

Already, there is anger in the political class and within the strategic community over giving evidence to Pakistan in the absence of any real movement on the core issue of terrorism.

"We have behaved in a naive manner after 26/11. It's fanciful to expect that any of the perpetrators (of the Mumbai terror attacks) will be punished. The day we got into the process of giving evidence, we reached a dead-end," said G Parthasarthy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his statement during the foreign policy debate in Parliament had said that Pakistan must defeat terrorism and that he "believed" the current leadership understands the need for action.

But Pakistan watchers point out that terror from Pakistan continues to be a real threat as the infrastructure is intact. "We are looking for any concessions from Pakistan... but the point is has terror from Pakistan reduced," asked Ajai Sahni, executive director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management.

"The bottom line is that the dynamic within Pakistan that created terror threat still exists. When the dynamic hasn't changed, all the rest is trivial data, it doesn't matter," he added.

The strategic community believes there is a need for a new response. "Why is a country one-eighth of India's size able to needle us. We are constantly on the run. This is a policy failure. The prime minister says only alternative is talk and war. There is whole range of calibrated moves from economic pressure to diplomatic pressure. You can't allow threat of war to dictate policy," said Mr Sahni.

Sources in the government also admit that elements of the Pakistani establishment are still not convinced that they have to abandon terrorism against India as a state policy.

The days after Boko Haram

Nigerian Gaurdian

By Banji Adisa

THE international media searchlight has been beaming on Nigeria in the past week - characteristically for negative reasons manifested in the resurgence of die-hard religious fundamentalists who caused the nation to witness the avoidable deaths of hundreds of thousands of our compatriots. The fanatics were simply unlucky to have been recruited and brainwashed into believing that their own brand of jihad is holy and in the best interests of the nation. How wrong could a feeble mind be? The major pre-occupation now is: what do we do to save the other followers of Mohammed Yusuf's unfortunate doctrine, those who missed arrests after being led blindly into the valley of the shadow of death? There should be many more in the shadows.

The Cable News Network (CNN) had a feast running the gripping footages, almost on hourly basis, of the tragedy of a failing state still struggling to find out what she wants to do with herself in the face of mounting security, political and economic challenges. The print media too would not be outdone as The Times of London wrote the country off in a stinking editorial no true Nigerian would and should be proud of. That piece had all the ingredients of the comments on the Nigerian leadership reminiscent of the inglorious and devilish days of the maximum ruler Sani Abacha, a General in the Army who suppressed every voice of dissent. At will, he stung like a scorpion and brought pain and misery to many families in his failed attempt to perpetuate his unwelcome hold on power. But in His wisdom, God the omnipotent took away that despot unannounced and unsung.

Titled 'Nigeria on the brink', the Times said in part: "What happens in Nigeria ...distorts the oil market, drives international criminality and open gates to extremism and terrorism." The conclusion was unambiguous: "Nigerians are desperate to see better government in Abuja. The onus is now on President Yar'Adua to overcome doubts about his democratic legitimacy, grasp the urgency of Nigeria's situation and save a failing state before he is swept away by violence, despair or another coup."

The local media too have said so much about the need for the president to save this crumbling edifice. What is totally unacceptable in The Times leader is the option of a coup. It is a past we, as a people, would love to forget in spite of the difficult terrain we walk at present. As obtained in normal democratic settings, we would prefer to vote out a non-performer when the opportunity presents itself, to inviting men in jackboots to come and 'chop' again. We can only hope we don't get consumed by these mounting challenges. One would have no option but to concur with Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah's submission in a recent interview with a weekly news magazine that what we are saddled with are only political office holders and not leaders, considering that they seem to have no clues to the woes befalling the country.

The handling of the fire stoked by Boko Haram sect by the security forces, especially the police extermination of the captured leader of the group and the alleged financier Buji Foi (or Fai) who was a top political office holder in Borno State, leaves much to be desired. Simply put, it is extra judicial killing which is not sanctioned by the Constitution.

Typical of the police, the nation was initially fed with lies that Yusuf was killed trying to escape arrest, until facts proved otherwise. Now the police is setting up an inquiry to ascertain the circumstances of the executions. What then could have prompted his killing just few hours after his capture by soldiers who were drafted to contain the violence that got out of control of the police? The undue haste to take credit for the death of a most wanted fundamentalist has put the police in a big mess that must be explained, having robbed the nation the opportunity to extract useful information to assist in monitoring the sect and others in the mould of Boko Haram who might also be working at wreaking further havocs. No one is fooled to think that the nation has seen the last of religious fundamentalism in the northern part of the country.

In the course of the mayhem or shortly before then, the chief of the state security service reportedly denounced the complacency of government in giving prompt attention to briefs on threats to security in various parts of the country. He has not refuted it neither has the government queried his claims. If that is the case, why are we always talking about failure of intelligence after every tragedy, regardless of the capacity of the security agents to face insurgents? By the way, who is this 'government' that has turned deaf ears to security alerts? I guess it can't be any other than the National Security Council with (who again?) Yar'Adua at the head of the team. I may be wrong but whoever this 'government' exhibiting lukewarm disposition to security matters is should be told in clear terms of failure of duty.

The nation has been told that Boko Haram has been under watch for quite some time before the members struck last week, first in Bauchi State before the offensive launched in Borno, Yobe and Kano. Borno, of course, recorded the heaviest casualties having played host to the sect's leader and the operational base.

Happily, the insurgency has been reasonably contained and the security agents are believed to be doing mop-ups. But the police spokesman in Abuja Emmanuel Ojukwu has put the membership of the sect in the region of 1.5 million! This is where the real job is: where do we place the rest hundreds of thousands of the fiery adherents who also have the capacity to regroup and unleash similar atrocities in the near future?

I believe this is where re-orientation comes in for the multitude others that would be identified. The governors and elders or leaders in the northern states have a lot to do to lift the masses out of the pit of ignorance which the system has confined them with the assistance of fundamentalists like Yusuf. That western education which is their problem must be made to be their saving grace. Much of the mismanaged public funds could be used to arrange mass literacy classes for as many as are willing to have it. Poverty and unemployment have been identified among the afflictions of the youths. But they are not peculiar to that part of the country alone. Rather it is a general disease in the country.

Embarrassed by recurring religious upheavals in the region, the Northern Governors' Forum met on Monday in Kaduna and resolved to fashion some laws against sectarian violence. Laws are desirable but the situation on ground goes beyond legislation. The fundamental problems of ignorance of the masses that is at the root of the current crisis must be tackled while youths must be gainfully employed.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, the current chairman of the forum said activities of the sect were not acceptable in the 21st century when other nations were making scientific progress and technological breakthroughs. That is the point. He also advised governor-colleagues to take security council meetings very seriously. We hope they will do just that ... if only they would spare a little percentage of the huge security votes they always mismanage for their political ends. The votes are largely unaccounted for.

The police as an institution needs reformation and reorientation that will emphasise sanctity of a life until he is proven guilty for an offence requiring death penalty. The authorities may also need to consider community policing to bridge security lapses. But the greatest challenge is how to advance the welfare of the people with basic things of life and provision of employment opportunities for all. That is a way out of the depths to which our values have sunk in recent times.