20 April 2011
The top U.S. military officer accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of maintaining ties to militants in Afghanistan during a trip to Islamabad on Wednesday that was focused on easing diplomatic tensions. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistan's perceived foot-dragging in tackling strongholds in North Waziristan belonging to the Haqqani network and its continuing relationship with it was "the most difficult part"...
Read the post »
Drone Program to Continue, Only Question is How: US
20 April 2011
The United States will not abandon its drone program in Pakistan but how it goes forward is a matter for U.S. and Pakistani intelligence and military officials to determine, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. "The program is something that we have said we go ahead on. The question is how. And that process is going to be something that's going to be one of the main tasks that our intel and our military guys have," the official said, speaking to reporters...
Read the post »
Pakistani Pashtun Tribe Rises Up Against Extremists
20 April 2011
What does it take for a Pashtun tribe in Pakistan to rise up against an extremist militia? The case of the Zakhakhel tribe in the Khyber Tribal Agency may provide an answer. This month, the tribe came to blows with the fundamentalist Lashkar-e Islam group it has long accommodated in its home area of the Tirah Valley, which sits astride NATO's supply line to Afghanistan. Lashkar-e Islam militants, who are loosely allied with the Taliban, frequently...
Read the post »