Suspected US missile strike kills 10 in Pakistan: officials

THE STANS

Pakistan halts NATO trucks over security concerns
Pakistan has suspended movement of fuel tankers and food trucks to NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan for security reasons, officials aid Sunday, hoping the service would resume soon. Pakistan barred the delivery of sealed containers and oil tankers through the historic Khyber Pass several days ago after Taliban militants in the rugged lawless area hijacked 15 trucks destined for Afghanistan last Monday. Security forces backed by helicopters later recovered the trucks but the militants had looted goods from some of the vehicles, officials said. "We suspended movement of NATO trucks for security reasons. However arrangements have now been made to provide protection to the containers," local administration official Bakhtiar Mohammad said. "The container service will resume on Monday," he told AFP. Troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps will escort the supply trucks from Peshawar to the Torkham border, another local official Rahat Gul said. Gul added that some new checkposts, to be manned by soldiers, will be established along the route where the Taliban have recently stepped up attacks on troops and goods carriers.
A British soldier was killed by a bomb in the restive southern Afghan province of Helmand, the Ministry of Defence in London announced Sunday. The soldier, whose next of kin have been informed, was killed during a routine journey in Musa Qala by the 2nd Battalion the Royal Gurkah Rifles on Saturday afternoon. "He was taking part in a routine road move when the vehicle he was travelling in struck an explosive device," the ministry said. His death brings to 125 the total number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001. Britain has around 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, largely based in Helmand, where they are battling Taliban insurgents.

by Staff Writers
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 14, 2008
A suspected US missile strike killed at least 10 Islamist militants in a Pakistani tribal region known as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels, security officials said Friday.

The strike comes amid repeated warnings from Pakistan that such attacks are in violation of international law and could deepen resentment of the United States in the world's second-largest Islamic nation.

Washington has stepped up its strikes on the region since March, when a civilian government took over from General Pervez Musharraf, who turned Pakistan into a close US ally in the "war on terror."

In the latest attack, officials said, two missiles apparently fired from a drone aircraft demolished a house in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.

"Nine foreigners were among ten killed," a top security official told AFP. Pakistan officials normally use the term "foreigners" to describe Al-Qaeda militants.

Another security official said Taliban militants surrounded the area soon after the missile strike late Thursday night and refused ordinary tribesmen access to the site.

Up to 14 militants were killed last Friday in a US missile strike which destroyed an Al-Qaeda training camp in Kumsham village in North Waziristan.

A series of recent strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas, all blamed on unmanned CIA drones, have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.

President Asif Ali Zardari warned the new US commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, last week that the attacks were "counterproductive" and could harm the battle for hearts and minds here.

Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani is scheduled to make a three-day visit to Brussels from Tuesday for talks with senior NATO officials about US missile strikes on Pakistani soil near the Afghan border.

Also Friday, an Afghan and a Japanese journalist were shot and wounded in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar.

Police said gunmen shot at a correspondent for Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper and an Afghan reporter in Peshawar, which borders the restive Khyber tribal district.

Both were taken to hospital, but police said their lives were not in danger.

US and NATO officials say that the rugged tribal regions have become safe havens for militants linked to Taliban and Al-Qaeda who fled the US action against the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Pakistan rejects accusations that it is not doing enough to tackle the extremist threat within its own borders.

The latest strike came as the head of the main US spy agency described the tribal areas of Pakistan as an Al-Qaeda "safe haven" that is linked to every major terrorist threat against the United States.

"Let me be very clear: Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas," Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden said in a speech Thursday.

In an annual threat assessment released in February, US intelligence reported it had detected an influx of new western recruits to Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas since 2006.

"Al-Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the US -- the identification, training, and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland," the report said.

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THE STANS

Britain resists Afghan call for more troops

London (AFP) Nov 13, 2008
Britain played down Thursday the prospect of sending more troops to Afghanistan in the near future, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.

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