Free Republic

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Islamabad said in remarks broadcast Saturday that there is evidence linking the Haqqani insurgent network to the Pakistani government, a charge that could raise tensions in an already strained anti-terror alliance between Washington and Islamabad. The U.S. and NATO blame the Haqqani network for many of the attacks in Afghanistan, including this week's strike on the U.S. Embassy. The group — affiliated with both the Taliban and al-Qaida — and its army of several thousand fighters is widely assumed to be based just over the Afghan border in Pakistan. U.S. officials have long...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Israeli airstrike on a car killed two Palestinians, including a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Tuesday in the Jebaliya refugee camp, Israeli and Palestinian security officials said. One of those killed was identified as Hassan Madhoun, a senior member of Al Aqsa, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Three people were wounded in the strike. Dozens of angry Al Aqsa members rushed to the local hospital where the bodies were taken. The gunmen fired into the air and chanted "revenge, revenge."

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The suicide bombers who tried to kill Pakistan's leader last week belonged to an outlawed militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, three intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The bombers were part of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned in 2002 as part of a drive to purge Pakistan of terrorism, said the officials, who are all intimately involved in the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity. One of the attackers was from Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region that is divided between Pakistan and India....