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Gunmen have kidnapped a diplomat from Iran and killed his guard in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say. The Iranian diplomat was said to be the commercial attache of the consulate.

via translation - ALERT - An Afghan consul kidnapped in Pakistan, his driver killed PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - The Consul General of Afghanistan in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, was kidnapped Monday by unidentified attackers who killed his driver in an ambush, announced the Afghan consulate.

Islamabad (PTI): A US diplomat had a narrow escape on Tuesday when she was attacked by unidentified gunmen while going to office in Pakistan's north western town of Peshawar. Lynne Tracy, Principal Officer in the US Consulate in Peshawar, was attacked by the gunmen in the University Town area of the capital of North West Frontier Province. Tracy escaped unhurt in the attack, TV channels reported.

Pakistan militant house destroyed The house was reduced to a pile of rubble An explosion has destroyed the house of a militant leader in the Khyber region of north-west Pakistan, killing at least seven people, officials say.It is not clear whether explosives stored in the building detonated or if it was hit by missiles. Security forces began a drive against militants in the area at the weekend. Separately, Islamabad and Rawalpindi were shaken by two loud bangs, but the air force said these had been caused by an aircraft breaking the sound barrier. It said one of its fighter...

BARA (PAKISTAN): Pakistan's government claimed on Sunday that it had saved the northwestern city of Peshawar from militants as troops pushed forward on the second day of a major offensive against the rebels. ( Watch ) Soldiers backed by armoured vehicles retook control of the main town in the Khyber tribal district, on the outskirts of Peshawar, and also demolished a building belonging to a Islamist insurgent group, officials said. The government, under pressure from western allies over its peace talks with militants, launched the operation on Saturday to counter rebels threatening Peshawar and raiding supply convoys for Nato and...

BARA, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistani forces pushed forward with the new government's first major offensive against Islamist militants Sunday, retaking control of a key town and demolishing an insurgent group's building.The operation was launched a day earlier in the Khyber tribal agency to counter rebels threatening the northwestern city of Peshawar and attacking supply convoys for US and NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.Pakistan has come under growing pressure from the United States and other western allies who are concerned about its policy of negotiating with Taliban and other militants in the restive frontier region."The situation is under control. There has...

The Pakistani government has asked its military to get ready to launch attacks on Taliban strongholds around Peshawar, the northern city, amid warnings the militants were preparing to seize control of the town, said a government official.The threat is alarming as Peshawar is within two hours driving distance from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

 ISLAMABAD, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces on Saturday launched a major operation against a militant group in a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan and destroyed several of its centers, officials said.     "We are conducting operation on the public demand and with the government instructions," Muhammad Alam Khattak, who is in charge of the operation, told a news conference in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.     Khattak, Inspector General of the paramilitary "Frontier Corps", said the purpose of the operation was to establish the writ of the government.     He said the operation was launched by the paramilitary...

Pakistan launches anti-Taliban crackdown near Peshawar Jun 28, 2008 By Ibrahim Shinwari LANDIKOTAL, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces launched an offensive against Taliban fighters near the northwestern city of Peshawar on Saturday, prompting a militant commander to suspend peace talks and threaten retaliation. The crackdown in the Khyber tribal region followed a series of sorties by Taliban fighters into Peshawar to push people to observe their puritanical interpretation of Islamic law. "There has not been any resistance from any group or miscreants," according to a government statement in Peshawar. Major-General Alam Khattack, who is leading the offensive, said it...

The Pakistani military has launched an offensive against militants near the main north-western city of Peshawar, security officials said. Militants have become more active in and around Peshawar in recent months, say correspondents. A contingent of troops has blocked the road towards Afghanistan, imposed a curfew and ordered shops to shut. Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud said he was suspending peace talks with the government. Pakistani forces have fired mortar rounds at suspected militant hide-outs in the mountains of the Khyber region, west of Peshawar. "There has been no resistance, so far. No casualties, so far," Malik Naveed Khan, police...

Red agencies/ districts controlled by the Taliban; purple is de facto control; yellow is under threat. The Pakistani Taliban continue military operations in the tribal agencies and the settled regions of the Northwest Frontier Province despite ongoing negotiations to sign a peace agreement with the government. Forces loyal to Baitullah Mehsud overran a town previously run by pro-government tribal forces, and beheaded 22 Pakistanis. In Peshawar, the provincial capital, police and government officials have said the Taliban is close to taking control of the city. Baitullah Mehsud strikes in South Waziristan As the Pakistani government continues negotiations with Baitullah Mehsud,...

PESHAWAR: In one of the most embarrassing incidents in the history of the provincial metropolis, 25 members of the Christian community were kidnapped when armed men attacked a building in the Christian Colony near the Academy Town on Saturday. "There were a large number of people gathered at around 8 pm and were preparing for worship when armed men broke into the building and picked up 25 to 40 Christians in pick-up vans," a resident of the Christian Colony, Isac, told The News. He said that two of those picked up by the armed men were priests. Sources said that...

Secretary General of the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri said on Saturday that Islamic unity charter has been compiled. In a meeting with Pakistani prominent Shia and Sunni ulema in Islamabad, he said the charter has outlined the commonalties shared by different Islamic sects. Referring to emphasis made by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for promotion of solidarity among the world Muslim nations, he said compilation of the Islamic unity charter is in line with the Supreme Leader's guidelines. He expressed the hope that during his stay in Pakistan, the charter...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - Militants in northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government and launched two days of suicide attacks and bombings that killed at least 70 people, dramatically escalating the violence in the al-Qaida infiltrated region. The attacks Sunday and Saturday followed strident calls by extremists to avenge the government's bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque and a declaration of jihad, or holy war, by at least one pro-Taliban cleric. Termination of the peace treaty, the hopeful handiwork of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, puts even greater pressure on the military leader as he struggles with both Islamic...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Thousands of soldiers rolled across northwestern Pakistan on Friday, a day after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed to follow the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque by eliminating extremism from "every corner" of the country. Anti-Musharraf protesters took to the streets of every major city to blame the U.S.-backed leader for the violence at the mosque, some chanting slogans in favor of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. But the rallies were smaller than expected, and there was a lull in the violent backlash from militant groups that had staged suicide bombings and attacks on foreign aid groups in...

Pakistan bombing kills 11 people It is not yet clear who was the intended target of the blast A bomb blast in Pakistan's north-west city of Peshawar has killed at least 11 people - mostly policemen including two senior officers - officials say.At least 30 others were injured by the explosion just as a Shia religious procession was about to start. Initial indications point to a suicide bombing, officials say. This is the second deadly blast in Pakistan in two days. On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at an Islamabad hotel, also killing a guard. Peshawar chief...

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. The...

Abdullah Khadr at large: Brothers were caught in Afghanistan, father is wanted for aiding Osama bin Laden The federal government released secret intelligence documents yesterday revealing that an al-Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan was under the command of a Scarborough man whose two brothers are captives in the war on terrorism. Abdullah Khadr, 22, is described in a Privy Council Office intelligence report as a suspected al-Qaeda member who is thought to have "commanded an extremist training camp in Lowgar Province in Afghanistan." He is the fourth member of the Khadr family to come to the attention of Canadian...

Three foreigners with suspected links to Al-Qaeda were arrested in an Afghan refugee camp in northwestern Pakistan, intelligence officials said. The men were arrested on Wednesday from a mud-walled compound in Jalozai, a sprawling refugee settlement about 25 kilometres east of Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier province, one intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. The second intelligence official, who also could not be named, said a large number of police and intelligence agents arrested the suspects from a bus they were travelling in following an intelligence tip off. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who has officially announced...

Two weeks ago, Turkish police arrested an Islamist with ties to many upper tier al-Qaida members. The man not only tried to get asylum in Germany, but claims to have known about the London bombings beforehand and to have helped the 9/11 pilots. The Turkish interrogators in Istanbul's high-security prison wanted to be polite; they wanted to show respect for Islam. They offered their prisoner, an Islamist named Luai Sakra, 31, a chance to pray during a pause in questioning. They'd done the same thing with earlier suspects. The move was supposed to establish trust. But this prisoner reacted a...

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Let's face it. He shouldn't be hard to find, especially from a Predator, an aerial reconnaissance vehicle that can read the minute hand of a wristwatch from an altitude of 26,000 feet. Bin Laden is very tall – slightly over 6'6" – and incredibly thin, less than 150 pounds. He wears shalwart kameez – the loose-fitting tunics and baggy pants of al-Qaida and Taliban soldiers – and, when the weather is cold, he dons a camouflage jacket. Although he was born in 1957 and far from retirement age, the al-Qaida chieftain appears...

Washington, April. 27 (PTI): American military is training Pakistani troops in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign and local militants in the country's tribal areas near the Afghan border, according to top US Commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen David Barno. Barno told the New York Times that he recently visited the Special Services Group headquarters at Cherat, near Pakistani city of Peshawar, and watched a display by the units trained by the Americans in their new Bell 4 helicopters. However, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, said there were no American military trainers at Cherat...

Washington, April. 27 (PTI): American military is training Pakistani troops in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign and local militants in the country's tribal areas near the Afghan border, according to top US Commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen David Barno. Barno told the New York Times that he recently visited the Special Services Group headquarters at Cherat, near Pakistani city of Peshawar, and watched a display by the units trained by the Americans in their new Bell 4 helicopters. However, Pakistan's chief military spokesman, Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, said there were no American military trainers at Cherat...

Ottawa pulls Saudi group's charity status Tax violation: Muslim World League being sued by 9/11 families Stewart Bell National Post Monday, December 01, 2003 TORONTO - Federal regulators have revoked the charity status of the Canadian branch of a Saudi organization that has faced longstanding allegations of ties to terrorism. A notice in the government publication Canada Gazette said the Muslim World League (MWL) is one of several charities that "have not met the filing requirements of the Income Tax Act." The revocation came into effect on Nov. 15, but the organization, dedicated to promoting Islam, was still calling itself...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani forces traded sporadic gunfire with militants overnight Thursday in a tribal region near the Afghan border known as an al-Qaida hideout, a day after heavy fighting killed at least 20 gunmen, officials said. The clashes follow weeks of failed efforts to get militants in South Waziristan to surrender peacefully since an army counterterrorism offensive in March that left 120 people dead. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said troops and militants exchanged intermittent gunfire through the night, but the situation was calm on Thursday morning. Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan's tribal regions, said...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - At least seven militants were killed Wednesday in a gunbattle with the Pakistani army in a tense border region where hundreds of al-Qaida militants are suspected to be hiding, officials said. A mix of foreigners and local tribesmen were holed up in four fortress-like houses and were trading fire with soldiers in a mountainous area of South Waziristan about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan's tribal regions, said the dead militants were foreigners. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan confirmed that the military had recovered three bodies and they...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 12 — Several men believed to be American citizens have been taken into custody here during the past few weeks on suspicion of being linked to Al Qaeda, senior Pakistani officials said today. The Pakistani officials said most of the men had been picked up along with other suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members in joint American-Pakistani raids in the country's remote tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan. They said they believe that the men form a disjointed network of disaffected Westerners who converted to Islam and have been drawn to militant causes, fighting alongside Al...

<p>LONDON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, al Qaeda's purported operations chief, has told U.S. interrogators that the group had been planning attacks on the Library Tower in Los Angeles and the Sears Tower in Chicago on the heels of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.</p>

London, UK: Al-Sharq al-Awsat (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic 18 May 03 [Report by Muhammad al-Shafi'i in London: "Fundamentalist Sources: US Intelligence Seized Last Month a Bin Ladin Audiotape Hinting at Attacks. Fundamentalists in London Do Not Rule Out Involvement of Moroccans Carrying European Identities in Morocco's Bombings"] Fundamentalists in London yesterday referred to a connection between the Casablanca and Riyadh bombings that occurred in less than one week from each other and the US authorities' seizure of an Usama Bin Ladin audiotape at the end of April. Fundamentalists acquainted with al-Qa'ida's affairs said Bin Ladin's audiotape was discovered with an...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 9/7/02 USS George Washington, Kabul, Peshawar, Bannu, Al Qaeda, Baghdad, cockfight, tatoo, tea house, al-Doura oil refinery, Jerusalem, Gaza, bomb-making factory, South Bend Indiana, Munich Olympics+30 ===================== USS George Washington =================== On the USS George Washington, starting with night time live fire training exercise with 50-calibre machine guns. ===================== Kabul =================== In Kabul, moving to sell her baked bread. In Kabul, at the funerals, after the bomb explosion in downtown Kabul (final pic). ===================== Peshawar =================== In Bannu, 112 miles southwest of Peshawar, Pakistan, proterrorists meet to support Al Qaeda. ===================== Baghdad...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/25/02 Asadabad, Kabul, Pul-i-Charkhi, Kandahar Taliban cemetery, Kandahar, Peshawar, Pakistan, Shamshatu refugee camp, Jerusalem, Israel, Barriers at Abu Dis, Dir al-Balah, Gaza, Berlin, Dresden, Geneva, Red Cross, Kartaly, Russia, Cape Canaveral, Atlas V ===================== Kabul =================== In Bagram, US soldiers hunt Al Qaeda who launched rockets near Asadabad. In Kabul, Afghans and the ISAF, International Security Assistance Force. In Kabul, from the Pakistan border, 1.5 million Afghan refugees have returned since ~1,800 families per day. In Pul-i-Charkhi, east of Kabul, Afghans arrive from Pakistan and Iran . ===================== Kandahar =================== In Kandahar,...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. Pakistani police arrest two suspected Arab al-Qaida men from Peshawar RIAZ KHAN; Associated Press Writer Associated Press Worldstream May 29, 2002 Wednesday 10:12 AM Eastern Time PESHAWAR, Pakistan Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested two alleged members of the al-Qaida terrorist network with the help of U.S. FBI agents during a raid in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police sources and family members said. Police said at least one of the men, Abu Abdullah, 35, seems to be an important member of Osama bin...