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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The head of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed in the past days, a US counterterrorism official told AFP on Thursday, reportedly struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone. The men are believed to be Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as Al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan, and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," said the source, adding that the pair was killed "within the last week." Officials believe al-Kini was...

ISLAMABAD: On the heels of their crusade against girls going to schools, the Taliban have now issued new dictum in the areas under their sway asking parents of the grown up daughters to marry them to militants or "face dire consequences". This new force-marriage campaign is being run in most of the areas in the Pakistan's troubled NWFP through regular announcements made in mosques to congregations. Such instances have come to light recently through some of the affected women daring to go to authorities for justice rather than meekly surrender to the militants’ dictates. Salma, who teaches in a primary...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Taliban militants are beheading and burning their way through Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive. ... "You can't imagine how bad it is," said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. "It's worse day by day."

A suspected pilotless American drone has fired two missiles in a border area of Pakistan, killing seven people, Pakistani officials have said. Reports say the missile destroyed a house in South Waziristan. The identity of those killed is not known.

The US has attacked a Taliban safe house in the lawless tribal agency of North Waziristan, killing two people, according to reports from the region. An unmanned Predator aircraft fired at least one Hellfire missile at a Taliban safe house in the Tapi Tool region near Miramshah, the main town in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency, Geo News reported. No senior leaders have been reported killed in the strike. The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani family and Taliban warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadar operate in North Waziristan. The Haqqani Network has a strong presence in Miramshah region of North Waziristan. The Haqqanis control large...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A suspected U.S. strike killed six people Thursday on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region believed to be a stronghold of Al Qaeda, two intelligence officials said. The identities of those killed in the attack was not immediately known, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. "At present, local Taliban have surrounded the destroyed house, and they are not letting anybody get close to it," said one of the officials. Citing agents and informants in the field, the officials said six...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed three people in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border.

India has proof that the Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI was behind the deadly Mumbai attacks. Sources have told NDTV that ISI trained the attackers.The names of trainers and the places where meticulous training took place are also known to the government, the sources said. The United States is believed to have even more evidence some of which it has shared with India, they said. The US has told Pakistan that they have proof of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba's role and sought the arrest of its chief Hafeez Sayeed. Sources added it is hard to imagine that Pakistan army was not aware...

ISLAMABAD: Maulvi Fazlullah, leader of a banned outfit Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, has been killed, Interior Ministry said here Wednesday. However, spokesman of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan has denied the government’s claim.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – A missile strike by a suspected US drone killed at least three militants early Saturday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal district known as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban, officials said. "The strike destroyed a militant hideout in the village of Alikhel in North Waziristan," a senior security official who declined to be named told AFP.

A major Al-Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday. Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member in Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. "He was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda and was involved in recruiting and training of fighters," the senior official said. According to US intelligence shared with Pakistan, al-Saudi was the main link between Al-Qaeda's senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region, an Islamabad-based senior security official said. "He was the...

MIRANSHAH/ WANA: A total of 33 people, majority of them foreigners, were killed in two separate U.S. drone strikes in Pak-Afghan bordering areas of North and South Waziristan late Friday. In the first attack two missiles were fired that destroyed a vehicle and a house in Mir Ali, a town in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region that is a known hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, sources said. The latest targeted an Al-Qaeda operative, possibly an Iraqi, but officials citing local intelligence reports said he was not believed to be among the dead. Officials gave the targeted militant's name...

A suspected US missile strike has killed 20 people, including a top Taleban commander, in north-west Pakistan, witnesses and officials say. Mohammad Omar was among the dead when the missile, reportedly fired by a pilotless US drone, hit a compound owned by him in South Waziristan. Omar fought with the Taleban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. The US has launched missile strikes against suspected militant targets in the Afghan border region recently. The latest strike on Sunday night was launched at a compound owned by Mohammad Omar in Mandatta village in the troubled region of South Waziristan. Mohammad Omar...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Suspected U.S. missiles hit a house frequented by an Arab militant near the Afghan border Friday and killed 15 people, intelligence officials said, in the latest alleged American attack on targets inside Pakistan. It was unclear if the Arab, identified as Abu Kasha Iraqi, was among those killed, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Suspected U.S. missile attacks have killed at least two senior al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan's wild border zone this year, putting some pressure on extremist groups accused of planning attacks...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Almost three years ago, Sajjad Khan used to buy supplies for the Pakistani Taliban with U.S. dollars that he says came from al-Qaida. Now he realizes what al-Qaida is getting in exchange. Khan's 13-year-old nephew has been pulled from a madrassa to train as a suicide bomber, and Khan fears he himself might be killed for begging the boy not to go. "The Taliban come in secret and take them for training from the madrassa," said Khan, a burly, black-bearded Pashtun, holding a picture of his young nephew. "They go to the Taliban but they get their...

LOI SAM, Pakistan – Pakistan's army captured a key militant stronghold near the Afghan border, a breakthrough in a bloody push against the Taliban and al-Qaida that has claimed 95 civilian lives, the military said Saturday. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said troops on Saturday captured Loi Sam, a town in the Bajur region sitting on a vital intersection connecting the border to three neighboring Pakistani regions. "Now we have complete control in this area from where miscreants used to go to Afghanistan," Abbas told reporters flown into Bajur on a military helicopter Saturday. "Miscreants have been expelled or...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Fewer foreign fighters are slipping into Afghanistan since Pakistan launched its offensive in August against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in border tribal regions, the Pentagon said Wednesday. In a media briefing, US Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell welcomed "stepped-up operations" by the Pakistani military in Peshawar, and in Swat in particular, over the past two months. "It is stepped up not just in terms of tempo, but in terms of effectiveness," Morrell said. "As a result, we have seen some improvement in the flow of foreign fighters across the border into Afghanistan." He said the assessment came...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired a missile into a Pakistani village in North Waziristan tribal region early on Thursday, a Reuters witness said, the latest in a series of such attacks in recent weeks. The strike targeted a village near Waziristan's main town of Miranshah where Jalaluddin Haqqani, a veteran Taliban commander and an old friend of Osama bin Laden, had established a madrasa or religious school and where his extended family used to be living. There was no immediate word on casualties. "A large number of militants are rushing toward the area in vehicles," the...

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistani helicopter gunships, fighter jets and artillery pounded militant hideouts in a Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Monday, killing 12 rebels, officials said. The strikes were carried out at militants' hideouts across Bajaur, where Pakistani troops and Islamic extremists have been locked in fierce fighting since August. "Pakistani helicopter gunships, jet fighters and artillery hit militants' hideouts, killing 12 militants and wounding more than a dozen others," a senior security official told AFP. Local administration official Mohammad Jamil confirmed the deaths of 12 Taliban fighters in Monday's offensive.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suspected U.S. drone fired a missile on Thursday into Pakistani territory on the Afghan border, killing at least six people. The missile hit a house in the village of Sam in South Waziristan, in an area known as a stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, head of Pakistani Taliban militants. NBC News reported that the blast killed six people and injured five others.

A suspected US drone fired two missiles on Thursday into a Pakistani tribal area that is a known Al-Qaeda and Taliban hub, killing at least five people, security officials said. The strike in South Waziristan came hours after a suicide bomb destroyed a police station in a separate area of northwest Pakistan, where the government is waging a military campaign against Islamic militants. "Two missiles were fired, completely destroying the house. Reports confirm five dead," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Pakistani military or from the US-led...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired a missile on Thursday into Pakistan's North Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border regarded as a safe haven for al Qaeda and Taliban militants, a Reuters witness said. "It was a huge blast," said the journalist, who saw and heard the explosion from the rooftop of his house in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, shortly after 10:00 p.m. (1600 GMT). The target was in Tappi, a village 20 km east of Miranshah that has been hit before in recent days. "The drone is still flying in the...

At least 20 Al-Qaeda linked militants, eight of them foreigners, were killed when Pakistani helicopter gunships hit rebel hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. The casualties occurred on Wednesday in the Bajaur region, where Pakistani troops launched a major offensive against Islamic militants in August. "Twelve local and eight foreign militants including their important commanders were killed in the successful airstrike," a security official told AFP.

KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistan ordered the deportation of about 50,000 Afghan refugees in an insurgency-wracked tribal region amid a major military offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. The government said it was expelling all Afghan refugees in the Bajur tribal region, alleging many of them have links to militant groups. Police in the town of Khar in Bajur arrested 25 Afghans and said they would soon be deported.

A few minutes ago I was reading an article about the Taliban in Pakistan and this so-called region of Waziristan. In an effort to geographically orient myself, I decided to type Waziristan into my beloved Google Maps. Unfortunately, Waziristan could not be (properly) located, and I received this response. Waziristan, Pakhistan [sic] ‎Address: Removal requested (No such place) Luckily, one can look up Waziristan elsewhere and find out where the place really is. Wikipedia, for example. I'm not a conspiracy nut or anything like that, but I'd like to throw this question out to everybody reading this post. Who do...

US air strikes have killed at least 20 people including suspected foreign militants close to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, reports say.

Pakistani tribesmen supporting a government assault on Islamist militants near the troubled Afghan frontier have killed 13 Taliban insurgents, officials said Wednesday. The role of the Pashtun tribal fighters in the operation in the volatile Bajaur region has drawn comparisons with the so-called "Sunni Awakening" in Iraq in which tribes fought Al-Qaeda militants. "Thirteen Taliban militants were killed in fighting with tribal forces overnight," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said one tribesman also died in the clashes which erupted when Salarzai tribesmen set fire to about a dozen militant hideouts and houses in revenge for...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone hit a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding nine, security officials said Wednesday. The attack is the latest in a string of incidents on the rugged frontier that have raised tensions between Islamabad and Washington, including a clash between Pakistani troops and US-led forces in Afghanistan. It happened shortly after Pashtun tribesmen shot at three drones circling the village of Khusali Toorikhel in North Waziristan, a known haunt of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. "After the drones came under...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's army chief named a general considered a hawk in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban to head the country's powerful spy agency, asserting his control at a time of U.S. concern that rogue operatives are aiding Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha oversaw military offensives against militants in the lawless border regions with Afghanistan in his most recent job as director general of military operations. His appointment as head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, the country's main spy agency, was part of a broader shake-up of army top brass announced...

Pakistanis say suspected US drone shot down ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani soldiers and tribesman shot down a suspected U.S. military drone close to the Afghan border Tuesday night, three intelligence officials said. If verified, it apparently would be the first time a pilotless aircraft was brought down over Pakistan and likely would add to tensions between Washington and Islamabad over recent American cross-border incursions into the country's lawless tribal regions. The three officials said the aircraft was hit at the village of Jalal Khel in South Waziristan after circling the area for several hours. Wreckage was strewn on the...

Pakistan on Sunday blamed Al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants for the massive suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 260. Dramatic footage of Saturday night's attack showed the carnage could have been far worse, but the attacker failed to get through a secondary barrier when he crashed his explosives-laden truck into the hotel's security gates. The interior ministry said the truck was packed with 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) of explosives, and pointed a finger at Taliban militants allied with Al-Qaeda who are based in the remote areas along the border with...

Pakistan order to kill US invaders Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | September 13, 2008 KEY corps commanders of Pakistan's 600,000-strong army issued orders last night to retaliate against "invading" US forces that enter the country to attack militant targets. The move has plunged relations between Islamabad and Washington into deep crisis over how to deal with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban What amounts to a dramatic order to "kill the invaders", as one senior officer put it last night, was disclosed after the commanders - who control the army's deployments at divisional level - met at their headquarters in the...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNN) -- Dozens of Taliban militants took control of a government office in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border Saturday, raising concerns about an advance on the nearby city of Peshawar, a police chief said. Pakistani police and government troops rolled into the sparsely populated town of Nasir Bagh in armored personnel carriers to assess the situation, police chief Riaz Khan said. About 100 Taliban militants raided a development office in Nasir Bagh and attacked at least four workers there, Khan said. Their status is unclear, although local reports said the men were kidnapped -snip-

Missiles fired by U.S. drones killed 16 people, including Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, on Monday in a strike targeting a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden, intelligence officials and Pakistani villagers said. "There were two drones and they fired three missiles," said a resident of Dandi Darpakheil, a village in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. A military official said a house and madrasa founded by Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were the targets. Haqqani is a veteran commander of the U.S.-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and...

Pakistan's security forces have missed the opportunity to capture al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a senior government official has said. Rehman Malik, the adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on security affairs, said on Monday they also received a report al-Zawahiri's wife had been in the tribal region of Mohmand. Pakistani forces stormed the location but did not find the couple, he said, without indicating when the raid took place. He said al-Zawahri moved between Mohmand and the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktika."We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he's moving in Mohmand and,...

'Scores dead' in Pakistan clashes By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad Pakistani troops have been battling Taleban fighters near the border Pakistan's military says it has killed 47 pro-Taleban militants in separate incidents in the rugged west of the country, bordering Afghanistan. Thirty-seven militants were killed in helicopter-gunship attacks in Bajaur area, an army spokesman told the BBC. The figures cannot be confirmed. Locals in Bajaur told the BBC five people had been killed in the violence. A further 11 militants were killed - and more than 15 hurt - in fighting in South Waziristan, the military said....

According to the report, the Pakistani officials confirmed that Maulana Faqir Muhammad was killed during the fighting between the Taliban and the Pakistani security forces in the tribal district of Bajaur Agency.Big news if true....Muhammad is friend and protector of Ayman Zawahiri.

As Western and Pakistani intelligence sort through the fallout from the July 28 airstrike in South Waziristan, Pakistan, rumors are swirling that Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, was either killed or seriously wounded in the attack. All of these rumors have been based on Pakistani intelligence sources, which makes the allegations suspect. Without confirmation from the US military or intelligence, the reports from Pakistan should be viewed with deep skepticism. From the strike to the Zawahiri rumor Rumors of Zawahiri's death or wounding began four days after what appears to be a US Predator unmanned aerial vehicle...

Pakistan's GEO News TV correspondent Najeeb Ahmed interviewed al-Qaeda's operations commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu-al-Yazid (aka Shaykh Sa'id), at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan on July 21. Abu-Yazid's performance was a strongly confident one, notable for its contrast with the grim presentation he made in March regarding the status of the Islamist insurgency in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Several Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq have left the country for Afghanistan in a sign of weakness in the insurgent group, The Washington Post reported Thursday quoting Iraqi intelligence. US officials also say Al-Qaeda may be sending new recruits to Afghanistan, where they have made gains, and away from Iraq, where they have been hit by US and Iraqi forces, the newspaper reported. "We do believe Al-Qaeda is doing some measure of re-assessment regarding the continued viability of its fight in Iraq and whether Iraq should remain the focus of its efforts," Brigadier General Brian Keller, senior intelligence...

Bush told Gilani of ISI link with militants By Our Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 30: President George W. Bush told Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and members of his delegation during their formal meeting here on Monday that the US believed that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency had established deep ties with militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, some officials present at the meeting told Dawn on Wednesday.Although Mr Bush was in a good mood when he met the delegation, he was blunt about expressing American reluctance to share intelligence information with Pakistan, said one official at the meeting. On Wednesday,...

Bush unhappy over ISI role Source: Our monitoring desk submitted 2 hours 7 minutes ago DEFENCE Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar Wednesday said that US President George W Bush had displeasure over the role of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the ISI. In an interview with a private TV channel, Mukhtar said President Bush had expressed reservations on the role of ‘some elements at some level in the ISI’. Mukhtar said a number of significant matters came under discussion during the meeting with President Bush. “President Bush had complained that actionable intelligence shared with Pakistan got leaked much before its due time,”...

The tensions and fighting are still escalating in the tribal areas that span the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. While US, NATO and Afghani troops have a good handle on the Afghan side of the problem area, the Pakistan tribal regions known as FATA and NWFP (click map below for larger image) are the last large sanctuary for Islamo Fascists groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The recent missile strike which took out a key al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert hiding in the South Waziristan Agency of FATA has resulted in some interesting reactions - to say the least.The largest question looming for...

PESHAWAR: Backed by gunship helicopters, several hundred security forces Tuesday raided a madrassa run by well-known Afghan mujahideen and Taliban commander, Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, at Danday Darpakhel village in North Waziristan tribal agency. This was the eighth time that the madrassa was raided and searched. Official and tribal sources told this scribe from Danday Darpakhel, a town near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, that a large number of troops from Pakistan Army and the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) along with Khassadars and Levies personnel first besieged the village and then raided the huge and famous madrassa known as “Manba-ul-Uloom”. Witnesses said...

The Taliban have struck again in Pakistan’s lawless Northwest Frontier Province. A large Taliban force kidnapped 25 Pakistani policemen and members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary after overrunning a checkpoint in the settled district of Swat. The attacks are occurring despite a peace agreement signed between the government and the Taliban in May. The security personnel were captured after two senior associates of Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah were detained during an operation in Swat. The Taliban frequently kidnap government officials and security personnel to obtain the release of captive commanders and fighters. The kidnapping of the Pakistani security officials...

Pakistan's government says it will clarify why it reversed a move to put the most powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, under civilian control. On Saturday night it said the ISI would be brought under the control of the Interior Ministry. But the decision was revoked within hours, apparently following intervention from the army. The government issued a formal notification late on Saturday which said: "The Prime Minister has approved the placement of Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) under the administrative, finance and operational control of the [Interior Ministry] with immediate effect... " But at 0300 on Sunday morning, barely...

C.I.A. Outlines Pakistan Links With Militants By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT WASHINGTON — A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled secretly to Islamabad this month to confront Pakistan’s most senior officials with new information about ties between the country’s powerful spy service and militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to American military and intelligence officials. The C.I.A. emissary presented evidence showing that members of the spy service had deepened their ties with some militant groups that were responsible for a surge of violence in Afghanistan, possibly including the suicide bombing this month of the Indian Embassy in Kabul,...

George Bush blasted by Pakistan PM * Font Size: Decrease Increase * Print Page: Print Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | July 30, 2008 PAKISTAN'S Prime Minister lashed out at George W. Bush during talks in Washington yesterday, "reproaching" the US President over a US Hellfire drone missile strike inside Pakistani territory only hours before the leaders met. The missile strike that reportedly killed an al-Qa'ida chemical and biological weapons expert came hours before new Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met Mr Bush and warned him not to launch "unilateral" strikes on Pakistani soil. Speaking immediately after his meeting...

KHAR: Taliban in the Bajaur tribal district split into two factions after infighting between two militant organisations in Mohmand Agency led to the killing of eight members of one group on July 18. Pro-Baitullah Mehsud Taliban leader Umer Khalid killed eight members from the Shah Sahib militant group, including its chief and deputy chief, on July 18. “We, four commanders, are resigning from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) over the killing of mujahideen in Mohmand Agency,” Salar Masood, a spokesman for the four commanders, told Daily Times on Monday. “We will form our own group – Tehreek-e-Taliban Al Jihad – to...

WASHINGTON - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani sought on Monday to reassure US President George W. Bush of his government's commitment to securing its border with Afghanistan, where Taleban and Al Qaeda militants pose a growing threat. Gilani, on his first official visit to the United States, held talks with Bush hours after a suspected US missile strike killed six people, possibly including an Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, in a Pakistani tribal region.The attack underscored US-Pakistani tensions that Gilani's visit was intended to ease as his fragile coalition tries to find its footing since defeating allies...