Philip Smucker, '', Asia Times Online, 29 May 2009

EXCERPT: "Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network is seizing a greater role behind the scenes in Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort that could block the Barack Obama administration's stated goal of denying the terror network sanctuary in South Asia. A three-month investigation of al-Qaeda's activities, from Nuristan in the north to Paktika in the southeast, suggests that bin Laden's terror network - working through Afghan and Pakistani partners - is present in almost every Afghan and Pakistani province along the fluid border areas between the two countries. Interviews with US military commanders and American radio intercepts of Arab and Chechen fighters as well as confirmed captures or kills of foreign fighters inside Afghanistan bolster the findings. More alarming to Western terrorism analysts and US commanders, however, is the recognition that al-Qaeda has succeeded in goading its regional partners into accepting the idea of a 'two-front-war' against US-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan and the government in Pakistan. That war in turn guarantees bin Laden's network permanent safe havens along the porous border between the two nations, from which it can plan larger international terrorist attacks."

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See also:
'Afghan militants "killed in raid"', BBC News, 28 May 2009
'Afghanistan praises Pakistan military action', DAWN, 28 May 2009
'US: Four al-Qaida members detained in Afghanistan', Sify News, 27 May 2009

Related posts:
'Country reports on terrorism 2008', 1 May 2009
'Al-Qaeda's shadow army outlines Afghan strategy', 14 April 2009
'CIA chief says Qaeda is extending its reach', 14 November 2008
'Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan and the good war', 28 February 2008