Pakistan’s New War Games

Note: The fol­low­ing is a par­tial repost of my story that ran on Reuters India. TAME­WALI KHARIPUR, Pak­istan (Reuters) — Pak­istan army troops backed by fighter planes con­ducted a mock bat­tle with India in the largest mil­i­tary exer­cise in 21 years, sig­nalling that the old rival remained its biggest secu­rity threat. In a dusty yet impres­sive dis­play of conventional […]

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control?

Step­ping away from insur­gen­cies and kid­napped reporters for a moment, the Open Source Cen­ter has a trans­la­tion of an Aug. 31 inter­view between Pakistan’s nuclear Fu Manchu, A.Q. Khan, and Nadeem Malik of Aaj News Tele­vi­sion out of Karachi. In it, Khan reveals details of the panic in Pak­istan in the mid-1970s after India tested a bomb, spark­ing a crash […]

Rockets hit NW Pakistani city; militants attack - The Associated Press


BBC News
Rock­ets hit NW Pak­istani city; mil­i­tants attack
The Asso­ci­ated Press
Rocket attacks are extremely rare in Pakistan’s cities, although Tal­iban mil­i­tants often tar­get secu­rity out­posts in the coun­try­side with heavy weapons.
27 Tal­iban mil­i­tants arrested in tribal Pak­istanPress Trust of India


Pak­istan troops kill 17 mil­i­tants after brazen attackDAWN.com
Pak­istan arrests 29 mil­i­tants in north­west areaXin­hua
آكي -Sakaal Times
all 88 news articles »

US relents its pressure as Pakistan prevails in bilateral interaction - Xinhua


DAWN.com
US relents its pres­sure as Pak­istan pre­vails in bilat­eral inter­ac­tion
Xin­hua
Drone attack, accord­ing to media reports cou­ple of days ago, elim­i­nated Bait­ul­lah Mehsoud, leader of Tehrik-e–Tal­iban Pak­istan,(Tal­iban Move­ment of
Despite Zardari’s mea culpa, ‘Jihad’ con­tin­ues unabatedKash­mir Herald


The Wagah syn­drome: Pak­ista­nis accuse India of ter­ror tiesSun­day Times.lk
Will India, Pak­istan stop play­ing pot and ket­tle?DAWN.com
Kash­mir Her­ald
all 111 news articles »

Clinton Offers Assurances to Somalis - New York Times


Telegraph.co.uk
Clin­ton Offers Assur­ances to Soma­lis
New York Times
“No doubt that Al Shabab wants to obtain con­trol over Soma­lia and use it as a base to influ­ence and infil­trate sur­round­ing coun­tries,” she said.
Extrem­ism thrives in Soma­liaTehran Times



all 1,911 news articles »

Taliban kill Pakistan militia leader: officials - AFP


Telegraph.co.uk
Tal­iban kill Pak­istan mili­tia leader: offi­cials
AFP
PESHAWAR, Pak­istanTal­iban stormed the home of a pro-government Pak­istani mili­tia leader and killed him Wednes­day as clashes between troops and Islamists
INDIAPAK­ISTAN: Tal­iban Face Another MutinyStrat­egy Page


Pak­istan Injects Pre­ci­sion Into Air War on Tal­ibanNew York Times
Pak­istani Pledge to Rout Tal­iban In Tribal Region Is Put on HoldWash­ing­ton Post
Reuters -New York Times -New York Times
all 908 news articles »

Taking the Eyes Off the Ball

Both Nicholas Schmi­dle, author of “To Live or to Per­ish For­ever: Two Tumul­tuous Years in Pak­istan,” and Andrew Exum (Abu Muqawama, yo) are warn­ing that expand­ing the Pak­istan mil­i­tary oper­a­tion, cur­rently push­ing back the Tal­iban from the Swat Val­ley, to Waziris­tan right now is likely a big mis­take. Schmidle’s con­cerns are logis­ti­cal and prac­ti­cal: … it […]

Rumor: Fazlullah May Be Dead

This is highly spec­u­la­tive, but var­i­ous media are report­ing that Swat Tal­iban com­man­der Maulana Fazlul­lah may have been killed in a gun­ship attack. Mys­tery sur­rounds the fate of a top-level Tal­iban occu­pant of a hill­top bunker in vil­lage Datta Khra, between the for­mer Tal­iban strong­hold of Kabal and Shamozai, which was com­pletely destroyed in a gun­ship heli­copter attack last […]

Pakistan's Civil War

It is now clear the ISI build­ing in Lahore was the tar­get of Tuesday’s deadly blast. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pak­istan (TTP) has claimed respon­si­bil­ity for the blast yes­ter­day that killed at least 30 peo­ple and wounded more than 200. “We have achieved our tar­get. We were look­ing for this tar­get for a long time. It was a reac­tion to the […]

Operation Rahi-i-Rast: One Month On

Yes­ter­day marked the one-month mark for the Pak­istani military’s offen­sive against the Tal­iban in the Swat region. How are things going? Let’s assess: This week­end saw the begin­ning of the bat­tle for Min­gora, the valley’s admin­is­tra­tive seat. The mil­i­tary is reported to be in con­trol of about half of the city, but some Tal­iban fighters […]