Afghan NATO force hits targets inside Pakistan

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

KABUL, July 16 (Reuters) - NATO forces in Afghanistan attacked targets inside Pakistan with artillery and attack helicopters after coming under rocket fire from across the border, the alliance said on Wednesday.

Tension is high along the border with a sharp rise in attacks in eastern Afghanistan coming from inside Pakistan that Afghan and NATO officials blame on de-facto ceasefires between the Pakistani military and militants in its lawless tribal belt.

ISAF forces "received multiple rocket attacks from militants inside Pakistan, July 15," the force said in a statement.

"The troops identified a (compound) as the point of origin of the attacks and responded in self-defence with a combination of fires from attack helicopters and artillery into Pakistan."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL146259.htm

[Indenturedebtor]

1. Why are we giving them money for their military if they won't secure their own lands?

I mean sheez... aren't we giving them a buttload of money for just this purpose?!?!?!

[redqueen]

3. Yes...we're giving them money to protect terrorists. Gotta keep the disaster captial flowin.

How can you do any profiteering if there's no war?

How can you have a war on terror if there aren't any terrorists?

[tekisui]

4. We love funding both sides of conflicts.

And, sending the War Profiteers the big bucks.

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Now that has the ring of truth to it. It's all about removing money from my pocket

And placing it in the Raytheon coffers. Yep, that's the game. I don't want to be a part of this game anymore.

[Kolesar]

2. Let's play "Risk"

Afghanistan wants to attack Pakistan. Pick up your dice.

[ohio2007]

6. Coalition troops ‘in position’

In what is being seen as a first step towards a major offensive in the tribal areas of Pakistan, coalition troops started to take up positions on the Pakistan-Afghan border from Tuesday. A command post was also set up at the Torkham Border point, which army officials say has been done for coordination between the allied forces and the Pakistan army.

Hundreds of allied troops armed with choppers, tanks, mortars and high-tech weapons arrived at the Pak-Afghan border areas and took up positions, local media and eyewitnesses said.

snip
On Tuesday, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf again said the remarks by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Pakistan was responsible for terror attacks in Afghanistan were “baseless”. Musharraf said Pakistan “was also the victim of such terror attacks”.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=8566ec57-51ac-4c35-ae9c-b49e0f05f32a&&Headline=Coalition+troops+%e2%80%98in+position%e2%80%99&strParent=strParentID

yeah, Pakistan peace committee members tried dialog and we saw what the Tali ban did to them.
It will only take another red mosque revenge attack in Islamabad like the one on Bhutto to start tipping the balance of power in that country.




US massing for attack into Pakistan?
snip
Yesterday's rocket attack comes as Pakistani tribesmen in North Waziristan and Pakistani military sources have stated that US troops are massing across the border in Paktia, Paktika, and Khost, and are preparing to strike inside Pakistan. An estimated 300 to 500 US troops, along with armor and "heavy weaponry" were moved into positions across the border near Camp Tillman.

"They were brought by helicopters," Akmal Khan, a Pakistani tribesman from Lowara Mandi in North Waziristan told Reuters. They are at the zero point," Akmal Khan, a resident of Lowara Mandi, told Reuters. Anonymous Pakistani intelligence and security officials told Reuters they fear the US will enter Pakistani territory to take out al Qaeda and Taliban camps, and will spark a wider war with the Pakistani tribes.

Tribesmen in North Waziristan, who shelter power Taliban leaders such as the Haqqani family and Gul Bahadar, vowed to defend their territory from any US incursion. "More than three million tribesmen would fight along the Pakistani security forces if foreign troops enter the Tribal Areas," Malik Afzal Khan told the Daily Times. The tribes also vowed to support the Pakistani Army against any US invasion.


snip




http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ab2_1216227868

all the saber rattling talk aimed at the upcoming invasion of Iran for the past four years and then

poof




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/afghan_pakistan;_ylt=AivmmVp.kIjkSO5mOyFllDvOVooA

this news is not exactly the invasion of Iran



US troops poised to cross Afghan border for raid on bases
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4340239.ece



U.S. aircraft carrier moves into position for Afghanistan air strikes
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=516_1215560577

ANd with US marines having their tour extended from october into november, the rest is up to the Pakistani government to decide if they want to allow the badlands to secede or remain under Islamabad's control




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1547929/Radical-cleric-sets-up-vigilante-sharia-law-court-in-Pakistan's-capital.html

[daleo]

7. There seems to be a general shortage of wars lately

Better have another one then.

[ohio2007]

8. Barack Obama - the security strategy

Barack Obama's promise yesterday to pursue a “tough and smart” new national security strategy that would focus not just on Baghdad but also on Kandahar and Karachi, Tokyo, London, Beijing and Berlin is a message aimed as much at America's allies overseas as it is to voters at home.




snip

Mr Obama wants to impress on allies naively hoping for a radical shift in US policy that he will pursue American national interests as single-mindedly as anyone. What the world expects from a Democrat in the White House may prove very different from what it gets.

snip
By contrast, he insisted, the US should assert itself more vigorously in areas where its interests really were threatened: in Afghanistan and Pakistan; in confronting Iran and rogue states; halting the spread of nuclear weapons; and in protecting the US economy and jobs,

Polls show that Americans are evenly divided on Iraq. Any Democrat, however, has to work harder on foreign policy and talk tougher than a Republican. Mr Obama spoke yesterday of the need to rebuild relations with US allies. But, if he wins, the allies may find him no easy partner. On trade, he will be more protectionist. On US energy security, he will use commercial advantage ruthlessly. And on climate change, he will prove as hard-headed as the Republicans.

On his forthcoming trip he will tell Europeans, Afghans and Iraqis that this Democrat intends to be no less assertive than Mr McCain. Mr Obama has inspired an extraordinary following around the globe. International hopes, though, have run ahead of America's expectations of its would-be commander-in-chief. Mr Obama knows that the “leader of the free world” answers to US voters. Obamaniacs abroad should take note.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4339966.ece


meet the new boss......

[ohio2007]

9. Rebels could win Pakistan's nuke haven ( birth of a break away republic)

A CRISIS meeting of Pakistan's new coalition Government has been warned that it could lose control of the North West Frontier Province, which is believed to hold most of its nuclear arsenal.

The warning came yesterday from the coalition leader, who, although he is part of the new Government, is regarded as having the closest links to al-Qa'ida and Taliban militants sweeping through the region. Maulana Fazlur Rehman bluntly told his colleagues: "The North West Frontier province is breaking away from Pakistan. That is what is happening. That is the reality."

This came just days before new Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's scheduled meeting with US President George W. Bush to discuss al-Qa'ida and Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Reports last night said Maulana Fazlur Rehman, regarded as having unparalleled insight into the mood of the three million tribesmen in the NWFP, and leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, was backed in his assessment by members of the coalition Government from the Awami National Party, which rules in the province's capital, Peshawar. They, too, told the meeting of jihadi militant advances throughout the province, with their influence extending to most so-called "settled areas", including Peshawar. Yesterday, the army was reported to have abruptly ended an operation in the Hangu district, close to Peshawar, after threats by militant leaders.

snip

Al-Qa'ida's operational commander in Afghanistan, a 53-year-old Egyptian named Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was interviewed on Pakistani television yesterday and claimed the organisation's strength in Afghanistan was growing so rapidly it would "soon occupy the whole country".

He claimed that "the morale of our fighters in Afghanistan is very high and they are putting up a tough fight against US troops". He also claimed responsibility in the interview for a terrorist attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad. The fact of the interview, as much as what he said, is seen as indicating an important new stage in the crisis.

"The bad guys are even popping up and giving television interviews: that's a reflection of what's happening," one foreign diplomat in Islamabad said last night.

A leading think tank warned this week about the Taliban's use of a media strategy to exaggerate their strength and undermine confidence in the Afghanistan Government.

The International Crisis Group says the administration and its backers must counter this propaganda if they are to defeat an insurgency "that is driving a dangerous wedge between them and the Afghan people", in a report entitled Taliban Propaganda: Winning the War of Words?

The Taliban now publicise their messages, warnings and claims of battle successes through a website, magazines, DVDs, cassettes, pamphlets, nationalist songs, poems and mobile telephones. Audacious tactics such as the Kandahar jailbreak last month and the April assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai show that the intent is to grab attention.

"The result is weakening public support for nation building, even though few actively support the Taliban," the report says.

snip

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24078316-25837,00.html

SO,
they say they keep their nukes in the badlands far from the Indian side of the border ?




"move em or lose em" . Rand McNally is standing by to update the map
while the worlds best weapon against the cave dwellars ideology remains sidlined out of

'respect' ;)