Free Republic

"Six arrested over hotel terror plot" (UKPA) – 1 day ago SNIPPET: "Pakistan police have arrested six suspected Taliban militants with a suicide vest and hand grenades allegedly on their way to attack a five-star hotel and kill Americans in the country's cultural capital. The militants arrested on the outskirts of Lahore included a 14-year-old boy and a prayer leader from Pakistan's Khyber tribal area near the Afghan border, said police official Zulfikar Hameed. The prayer leader was wearing a vest packed with explosives. They told police they were targeting Americans at the Pearl Continental hotel, he said."

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 15 suspected Taliban sympathizers Friday in the latest flare-up of violence near the Afghan border, the Pakistani army said. One soldier also was killed. The top army spokesman described the continuing bloodshed in the North Waziristan tribal region as "disturbing" and said efforts to control it were costing the Pakistani military "heavily." "Eighty percent of the people in the area are sitting on the fence and watching for which side buckles, either the government or the militants, and they will go with the winner," Maj. Gen....

DUSHANBE, July 29 (AFP) - The United States is ready to help Tajikistan secure its border with Afghanistan as Russia prepares to gradually withdraw its border guards from the Central Asian country, a top US general said Thursday. "We aim to strengthen our relationship with regard to our operations that will assist in making the border forces in Tajikistan stronger and more effective," General John Abizaid, commander of US central command, said during a visit to the former Soviet republic. The general was speaking after talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov aimed at ensuring security on the Tajik-Afghan border, which...

ISLAMABAD: The United States donated radios and hundreds of vehicles Tuesday to help Pakistan patrol its porous frontier with Afghanistan, where US forces are hunting al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives. US Ambassador to Pakistan Nancy Powell oversaw the handover of 626 radios and 483 vehicles, including troop carriers, ambulances and pickup trucks, part of a $73-million fund to help Pakistan with border security, the American Embassy said in a news release. The donations were accepted by Maj. Gen. Syed Sadaqat Ali Shah, the head of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps, at the force headquarters in the western city of Quetta, near the...