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Members of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Pakistan say the use of drone missile strikes against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban extremists in the country's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan is proving to be an effective weapon in the anti-terror war. The U.S. lawmakers, however, have ruled out the possibility of giving the technology to Pakistan. After a brief stop in neighboring Afghanistan early this week, the four-member U.S congressional delegation arrived in Islamabad late Thursday to meet with Pakistan's civilian and military leaders. The leader of the delegation, Republican Senator John McCain, told reporters Friday the United States is determined to...

Despite the lingering demonstrations and disorder in Tehran, Iran’s ruling mullahs are confident anew in their country’s ability to surge to a hegemonic position in the Middle East without a major war. The main reason for the mullahs’ confidence is their interpretation of the appeasement policies of the US Barack Obama Administration. Most significant is the undeclared – yet widely projected – profound change in US policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran and all other regional governments are convinced that the US now strives to “contain” a nuclear Iran rather than continue the declared objective to prevent the nuclearization of...

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...

Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in the city of Quetta, The Los Angeles Times reported late Sunday. The newspaper said the prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta signals a new US resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington's relationship with Islamabad. The concern has created tension among officials in the administration of President Barack Obama over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic...

War On Terror: The anti-war crowd says the small number of enemy fighters inside Afghanistan doesn't justify sending 30,000 fresh troops there. They fail to understand the larger problem. Sen. Barbara Boxer complains al-Qaida is scarcely in Afghanistan. She cites an intelligence report leaked to ABC News that only 100 fighters are actually present inside the country, along with several thousand Taliban fighters. "I do not support adding more troops," the California Democrat argued, "because there are now 200,000 American, NATO and Afghan forces fighting roughly 20,000 Taliban and less than 100 al-Qaida." In other words, why are we even...

Billions of rupees of loans written off from Pakistan's state-owned banks...Army led institutions plundered the Army Welfare Trust, Rs14.49 million. General Kuli Khan, two Allied Bank loans written off: Rs1.8 million and Rs1.6 million against Janana De Malucho Textile Mills, owned by his father General Habibullah Khan. His brother Gohar Ayub Khan, Rs7.2 million written off against Rehana Woolen Mills.Lt General Azhar, Rex Breen Batteries, Rs16 million, Major General Mumtaz, Lt Colonel Shaukat, Major Tajuddin Rs1.2 million, Major General Ghaziuddn, Major General Umar, Rs8.5 million written off, Agriculture Development Bank.Air Marshal Azeem, Rs15 million written off, Pakistani Kuwait Investment Co....

Suspicions by Pakistan's powerful army that the country's civilian leadership is growing too close to the United States are fueling a political crisis that analysts here believe threatens the survival of the government and could divert attention from the battle against Islamic extremists. Military officials believe that secretly taped conversations between Pakistani President Asif Zardari and his ambassador in Washington, prove that it was at Zardari's insistence that a $1.5 billion U.S. aid package passed by Congress in September contained several provisions that angered the Pakistani military. The military publicly protested the aid package last month. "The reaction (from the...

Pakistan on Sunday angrily rejected a media report that raised fears of a militant takeover of the Taliban-hit nation's nuclear weapons and suggested that the US had a hand in protecting the arsenal. In the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that US officials had negotiated pacts with Pakistan to provide security for the nuclear arsenal in extreme circumstances. It also raised the possibility that the threat to the security of the nuclear programme might come not from Taliban rebels battling the government, but from a "mutiny" by fundamentalist elements within the powerful military....

Hillary Clinton faced anger during her visit to Pakistan after she attacked the failure of the government to tackle al-Qaeda. The US Secretary of State also faced angry questions about America's use of drone attacks inside Pakistan as she ended her three-day visit on Friday. Mrs Clinton was earlier forced to soften her criticism of Islamabad for its failure to capture of kill al-Qaeda's leaders.

At least five people have been killed and 35 wounded by a large blast in a market in Peshawar, Pakistani, local media say. Huge plumes of black smoke were seen drifting over the city. Pakistan has seen an increase in such attacks in recent weeks as the military carries out an operation against Taliban militants in South Waziristan. The blast comes as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a visit to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Pakistani television showed footage of burning shops in Peshawar, in the northwest of the country, and ambulances rushing to the scene

ISLAMABAD: SNIPPET: "Police found some objectionable literature, computers and some other stuff in the house and seized over 15 vehicles, including Sedan cars and sport utility vehicles. According to a senior police officer, the arrested people were booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act and produced in a court of law for further legal action. He said the activists were suspected of helping militants. He said the meeting was being held in a rented house and police were searching for the owner who would also face a legal action."

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has temporarily closed all its offices across Pakistan after a suicide blast Monday killed four people at the World Food Programme compound in central Islamabad, a UN spokeswoman said. ‘All UN offices in Pakistan have been closed until further notice,’ spokeswoman Susan Manuel told AFP. Another UN spokeswoman, Ishrat Rizvi, told AFP that the offices would be shut ‘for security reasons.’ A suicide bomber walked into the WFP's heavily fortified offices in Islamabad early Monday afternoon, police say, with three Pakistanis and one Iraqi man killed in the blast.

A nuclear-armed Taliban? It may not be as far-fetched as it might first appear. The Taliban already control or have a significant presence in northwest Pakistan along a critical stretch of the Afghan border. Taliban units operate with relative impunity in the region surrounding Peshawar, Pakistan's major population, commercial and transportation center less than 100 miles from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. Dominance of Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the pivotal northwest region of Pakistan provides not only a sanctuary and training centers for attacks on Afghanistan, but it has become a base of operations to weaken any pro-Western sentiments among the...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Tehran and Islamabad should move in harmony to expand bilateral energy relations as Pakistan struggles to overcome a looming energy crisis, officials say. Islamabad and Tehran in June signed a bilateral deal for the proposed 1,724-mile Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline. Pakistan would receive 750 million cubic feet per day from the South Pars gas field in Iran to generate electricity under the terms of a 25-year deal. Mian Shaukat Masud, the president of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told a delegation from Tehran that Iran should increase energy exports to Pakistan, the...

Note: The following text is a quote: LAHORE: Twenty-five explosive-laden vehicles have reportedly entered various major cities of the country, as the intelligence services launched search operations across all four provinces, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to the channel, the vehicles could target sensitive government installments and other important buildings. The channel cited a notification issued by the Interior Ministry stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles had entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi. The ministry ordered provincial authorities to immediately conduct search operations and impound the vehicles before any terrorist incident took place....

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani jets and attack helicopters bombed Taliban positions in a district near the capital Tuesday, the military said, in an expansion of an offensive against militants seemingly emboldened by a much-criticized peace deal. Troops and heavy artillery also joined the operation in Buner, which follows urgent calls from the United States for Islamabad to step up its fight against the militants, who moved into the region this month from the nearby Swat Valley. They set up checkpoints, patrolled streets and warned locals to abide by strict interpretations of Islam. The offensive will cause major strains on an already...

'300 Taliban suicide bombers on way to Islamabad,' claim Pakistan officials By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE 26th April 2009 300 suicide bombers are on their way to Islamabad, Pakistan and plan to attack the capital and certain local officials of foreign embassies there, Interior Ministry sources said. The suicide bombers also plan to attack Rawalpindi and Lahore and are being led by five top Taliban commanders who are close aides of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the country's unified Taliban movement, according to the sources. Troops of Airport Security Force stand on alert at Islamabad airport. Interior Ministry sources said 300...

International alarm at the Talibanisation of parts of northern Pakistan near Islamabad was mounting last night after militants ambushed a convoy of soldiers deployed to prevent extremists taking over a district only 60 miles from the capital. Snipers opened fire on police escorting four platoons of Frontier Corps paramilitary troops into Buner district, a day after militants overran government buildings and looted western aid offices. One policeman was killed and one injured, an army spokesman said. Locals said the ambush had forced the Frontier Corps to retreat. "Now Buner is ruled by the Taliban," one resident told the Guardian by...

Concerned over the recent peace deal between Pakistani authorities and the Taliban in the Swat valley, the US has admitted that there was a "trust deficit" in its ties with Islamabad, but hoped that it can be erased by jointly tackling a range of issues, including terrorism. It also pledged long-term commitment to help Pakistan come out of its present economic crisis and the threat from terrorism, asserting that there was an urgent need to marshal out international resources in this regard. The "trust deficit" between US and Pakistan can be handled by continuing to work closely together on a...

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release on bail Monday of a hard-line cleric who had been detained since shortly before soldiers stormed his mosque in 2007, killing scores of people and energizing the country's Islamist insurgency. Maulana Abdul Aziz was granted bail while the court considers the charges against him in relation to the siege of the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, his lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui told reporters outside the court. Prosecutors were not available for comment. Aziz was arrested as he tried to sneak out of the mosque dressed in an all-covering burqa worn by some Muslim women....