[wvns] US Expedites Pakistan War Funding

Pakistan: 12 killed in Waziristan:
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2035944&Language=en

ISLAMABAD, Oct 29 (KUNA) -- At least 11 more militants were killed in the ongoing military operation in Pakistan's tribal agency, along Afghan border, on Thursday, said military.
Eleven militants and one soldier were killed in the operation in South Waziristan tribal agency, said military in a statement, adding that two soldiers were also wounded.
The security forces have fully cleared Inzar Kalay, an key town in the province, of landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and bobby traps, according to the statement.
The forces are expanding their perimeter of security and closing in towards the mountainous areas.
A comprehensive training centre of militants was also discovered during search operation near Kaniguram area, it added.

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US quietly expedites aid for Pak military operations: :
Dawn, Pakistan
http://snipurl.com/swrlk

KARACHI: The United States has quietly rushed millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Pakistani forces in recent months, the NYTimes quoted American and Pakistani officials as saying.

Prior to the Swat operation in the spring, Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani asked that the US quickly deliver 10 Russian-built Mi-17s. According to the US newspaper, both US President Barack Obama and US army chief Admiral Mike Mullen personally intervened to fulfil his request; four copters were leased in June and the remaining provided to Pakistan under various authorities.

The report (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/world/asia/29weapons.html?ref=world) says that a whole range of other weapons, hardware and sensors have been provided to the Pakistan army. These include spare parts for Cobra helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, body armour and eavesdropping equipment.

Presently, American military surveillance drones are supporting the Waziristan operation by feeding video images and target information to Pakistani ground commanders. The Pentagon has also quietly provided the Pakistani Air Force with high-resolution, infrared sensors for its F-16 warplanes, which Pakistan is using to target its attacks on Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan.

`We've put military assistance to Pakistan on a wartime footing, as up to now it has been in a peacetime process,' the paper quoted Lt. Col. Mark Wright, a Pentagon spokesman, as saying. `We are doing everything within our power to assist Pakistan in improving its counterinsurgency capabilities.'

The number of American Special Forces soldiers and support personnel who are training and advising Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops has doubled in the past eight months, to 150.

Despite the expedited assistance, Pakistani officials are still upset with the pace of disbursement of all kinds of aid. Pakistani officials are particularly unhappy about the US's refusal to share some sought-after high-tech military equipment, like Apache helicopters and Predator drones.

Pakistani authorities are also reluctant to publicize the aid they have been receiving for the ongoing operations, the report notes. It points to army spokesman Athar Abbas's statement that the South Waziristan action was a purely Pakistani enterprise, unaided by the US. `Let us finish the job on our own,' he told reporters,

However, the report indicates that the US govt does not have a problem with the Pakistani authorities downplaying its involvement. An American adviser in Pakistan, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal United States policy, said, `US current military assistance either demonstrates US resolve and offsets anti-Americanism, or is deliberately underplayed to boost Pakistani military and political credibility, and the latter meets our policy objectives more closely.' — NYTimes (www.nytimes.com)

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Death toll from Peshawar blast rises to 117
By Ali Hazrat Bacha

Rescue workers remove rubble from the blast site one day after the car bomb ripped through the crowded market killing 117 people. – Photo by Reuters.

PESHAWAR: The death toll in Wednesday's bomb blast in the city's Meena Bazaar rose to 117 on Thursday evening and rescue workers believed that some bodies were still in the debris of the collapsed buildings.

A spokesman for the Edhi Foundation told Dawn that he himself had counted 117 bodies. He said that 14 madressah students were still trapped in a mosque destroyed by the blast and only one of the bodies had been retrieved so far.

However, SSP (coordination) Mohammad Alam Shinwari said that 105 bodies had been counted and now parts of the bodies were being recovered. Some parts of the vehicle used in the blast had been found, he added.

Officials of the Lady Reading Hospital said that two bodies had been identified by their relatives on Thursday morning.

The LRH issued a list of 105 dead people and 168 injured. The officials said that 81 people had been brought dead while two died in the hospital.

An aged woman, Mrs Shaheen, told Dawn that her young nephew Naeem Khan, who had a shop in the market, was missing after the blast and police were not allowing her to go near the scene.

Riaz Khan, of Jatan Street in Yakathut, said that his brother-in-law Abrar Khan, his wife Bebi Begum and their seven children had died in the blast.

Four of the bodies were found and buried. They were badly mutilated.

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Taliban blame Blackwater for Peshawar blast

ISLAMABAD (NNI) – Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud has blamed the controversial American private firm Blackwater for the bomb blast in Peshawar which killed 108 people.

Hakimullah Mehsud told media that if Taliban can carry out attacks in Islamabad and target Pakistan Army's Headquarters, then why they should target general public.

He claimed that American security agency Blackwater and Pakistani agencies are involved in attacks in public places to blame the militants.

When asked that the people also think that the militants are involved in such attacks, the Taliban leader was quoted as saying, "Our war is against the government and the security forces and not against the people. We are not involved in blasts."
Azam Tariq, the Taliban spokesman, who was accompanying Hakimullah, warned that those media organisations could be targeted which are defaming Taliban.

Information Minister in Northwest Frontier Province Mian Iftikhar Hussain and the Pakistani Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas had blamed militants for the Peshawar blast, saying that the militants are facing defeat in South Waziristan tribal region and are now targeting the people.

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Pakistani military begins offensive in Waziristan
By James Cogan
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/paki-j23.shtml

Pakistani troops have moved in force into South Waziristan, beginning
operations that are expected to escalate into a full-scale effort to drive the Islamist Tehrik-e-Taliban movement from the tribal agency and prevent Afghan insurgents using it as a safe haven to strike at US and NATO occupation forces over the border.

The offensive follows bloody fighting and mass civilian displacement in late April and May in the Swat Valley and other districts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and operations last year against the Taliban in the tribal agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand.

Reports over the past week suggest that the Pakistani army is establishing a defensive cordon several hundred kilometres long, stretching along the main road from Wana, the capital of South Waziristan in the south-west of the agency, to the town of Jandola, in the north-east.

Pakistani troops with tanks and artillery have been deployed from bases outside Jandola. Other army units have moved north from Wana and occupied high ground past the town of Madijan. Aircraft are protecting the roads. In all, at least 20,000 soldiers, Frontier Corp paramilitary personnel and police are involved.

The US military considers South and North Waziristan as the most critical areas of Pakistan to wrest from the control of the Taliban. In South Waziristan, Tehrik-e-Taliban leader and local warlord, Baitullah Mehsud, can mobilise as many as 15,000 fighters from among the Pashtun tribes, on the basis of traditional tribal loyalties, religious beliefs and popular opposition to the US invasion of Afghanistan. North Waziristan is the base of operations for the
Afghan Haqqani network—one of the most effective Taliban-linked insurgent movements fighting the US-led occupation.

Houses and compounds allegedly occupied by Taliban targets have been
repeatedly bombed in both agencies by unmanned American Predator drones. Last Sunday, missiles were fired at a home near the South Waziristan town of Makeen. Five people allegedly linked to Baitullah Mehsud were reportedly killed. The Obama administration has authorised at least 20 Predator attacks this year inside Pakistani territory—all in violation of international law. The strikes,
however, have done little to disrupt the Taliban. Instead, the attacks have killed over 700 civilians and fueled support for the Islamists.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke visited Islamabad earlier this month to repeat the Obama administration's demands for the Pakistani government launch a ground offensive into the Waziristans. This week, as operations get underway, Obama's National Security Advisor James Jones is travelling to Pakistan's capital. The purpose of the visit, according to the White House, is to "follow-up on the implementation of our new, comprehensive strategy".

The Pakistani military's aim appears to be to seal off the Taliban-held areas of South Waziristan from NWFP to the east and Balochistan province to the south, before launching a major assault. The only escape routes for the militants would be to the west over the border into Afghanistan, where they will be targeted by US and NATO forces, or northward into North Waziristan— the logical next target for attack.

The other aim of the cordon is to prevent the Taliban launching attacks in other areas of Pakistan. Since the government ordered troops into the Swat Valley, militants have carried out or attempted suicide bombings in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

A Pakistani security expert told Time magazine last week: "They [the
Taliban] will try to paralyse the country by striking at the major cities and business hubs." Anticipating greater violence as troops move into South Waziristan, the United Nations has declared the country "unsafe" for the families of its representatives and urged them to leave.

The killing in South Waziristan has already begun. On Friday and Saturday, Pakistani officials reported that F-16s, helicopter gunships and ground artillery had destroyed a Taliban training camp, two seminaries and three houses allegedly belonging to Islamist leaders. They claimed that at least 50 Taliban militants were killed, though there is no means of verifying the government casualty reports.

Clashes were also reported with militants attempting to block the
Wana-Jandola road. Troops are said to be working to clear the highway of the debris, mines and roadside bombs. In North Waziristan, Taliban fighters moved out of their mountain strongholds over the weekend and launched rocket attacks on several military bases. They also ambushed an army supply convoy, wounding three soldiers.

The offensive is likely to result in substantial losses for the Pakistani army and the Taliban. The greatest impact, however, will be on civilians. Most of Baitullah Mehsud's fighters live with their families in relatively isolated and poverty-stricken villages in mountainous regions, eking out an existence by subsistence pastoralist activity and agriculture. Like the US forces in
Afghanistan, the Pakistani military relies almost entirely on air strikes to attack remote localities.

One of the operational commanders during the Swat Valley offensive, Major General Sajjad Ghani, spelt out the murderous intentions of the Pakistani military in the Waziristans. He told a press conference this week: "The hard-core [Islamists], there is only one thing. You have to kill them. They are like a mad dog, and what can you do with a mad dog? You must kill it."

According to a government spokesman, 45,000 people had left the agency before the cordon was thrown up. This suggests that there are still close to 400,000 civilians trapped in what the military now treats as a free fire zone.

Fighting is still continuing in the areas that were targetted by earlier government offensives. Air strikes were launched over the weekend against an alleged Taliban base in Bajaur agency, which the military claimed to have cleared of anti-government fighters more than five months ago. Clashes also took place in the Upper Dir district of NWFP between Taliban militants and local villagers who have enlisted in a government-sponsored lashkar, or tribal militia.

At his press conference, General Ghani reported that the army had still not fully secured the Swat Valley and that as many as 3,000 militants and leaders had escaped the offensive. He suggested that they may have gone to either the Waziristans or Afghanistan. While the figure cannot be verified, Ghani claimed that 1,600 militants and some 100 soldiers had died in eight weeks of combat.

Large numbers of civilians have been displaced by the fighting. Some 500,000 fled from Bajaur and Mohmand last year and have not been able to return to their homes. A further 2.5 million people, predominantly ethnic Pashtuns, were forced out of Swat and other districts of NWFP in the last several months. It is believed that 80 percent found temporary refuge with relatives, friends or sympathetic strangers, but their resources are running out.

At least 300,000 displaced persons are crowded in unsanitary tent cities scattered across NWFP. With the number seeking shelter in the refugee camps growing each day, UN officials and relief agencies are warning of disease epidemics as the monsoon season begins.

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US drone strike kills 80 Pakistanis
By Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/paki-j25.shtml

On Tuesday, an unmanned US Predator drone fired missiles into a funeral procession in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan, killing as many as 80 people and maiming dozens more. It was the deadliest US attack within Pakistan to date.

The mourners had gathered for the funeral of seven victims of another US drone attack that had taken place earlier the same day. US media accounts described the target as a "Taliban training center in South Waziristan."

According to local sources, those killed and wounded in the attack were mostly civilians. The US has stepped up its drone attacks on South Waziristan in preparation for a major ground offensive by the Pakistani military. Pakistani fighter jets have also been bombing the region.

Last Sunday, US drones fired missiles at a home in the South Waziristan district of Makeen, killing at least five. On Thursday, June 18, a US drone bombed a house close to the capital of South Waziristan, Wana, killing one. When villagers ran to rescue those they feared trapped in the rubble, the unmanned plane fired its missiles again, killing 12 more. Tuesday's attack on the funeral
procession in the village of Najmaral, also in the Makeen district, appears to have been aimed at Pakistani militant leader Baitulla Mehsud. Mehsud was not at the funeral, which was held for a tribal leader and six others killed in that morning's attack. The increasing carnage inflicted on the Pakistanis is the direct result of the escalation of military violence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan ordered by President Obama. The new administration has already sent an
additional 12,000 US soldiers as part of a "surge" that will bring the US troop presence in Afghanistan by the end of the year to 60,000.

At the same time, the Obama administration is extending the war into
Pakistan, both through an increase in US missile attacks on an ever-widening swath of the country and through the exertion of pressure on the Pakistani regime of President Asif Ali Zardari to intensify the Pakistani military's violence in the regions bordering Afghanistan.

This policy has already produced a sharp rise in civilian casualties in both countries. In Pakistan, millions have been displaced in areas such as the Swat Valley as a result of the Pakistani military offensive.

In line with its escalation, the Obama administration this month sacked the US military commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, replacing him with General Stanley McChrystal, a Special Forces commander who has directed military assassination squads.

That the increase in drone attacks is part of a deliberate policy of
targeting civilians in regions controlled by insurgent forces opposed both to the US and the Pakistani government is underscored by this week's visit by Obama's national security advisor, General James Jones, to Islamabad. According to the White House, the purpose of Jones's visit is to personally oversee "the implementation of our new, comprehensive strategy."

The US drone attack on the funeral procession exposes the hypocrisy of
Obama's professed outrage over the Iranian government's repression of students and others protesting the June 12 elections. In just one day of drone attacks in neighboring Pakistan, the US killed more than twice as many civilians as have been reportedly killed in the course of the protests in Iran.

Local residents who survived Tuesday's attack said the drone fired three missiles into the crowd of mourners. "After the prayers ended, people were asking each other to leave the area as drones were hovering," Mohammad Saeed Khan, 35, told Agence France-Presse from a hospital in North Waziristan. Khan lost his leg in the US attack.

He added, "First, two drones fired two missiles. It created havoc. There was smoke and dust everywhere. Injured people were crying and asking for help... They fired the third missile after a minute, and I fell on the ground."

Another local resident explained to Free Speech Radio News, "Many
people were present at the funeral of a commander who was killed in a US attack. In the morning we heard a huge sound. Everyone understood it was a US drone, as people here are used to hearing the huge sounds of US drone attacks."

He continued, "Most of the local people want to leave this area, but they cannot leave due to their poverty. I believe many innocent civilians are among the dead. It is our culture and religious teaching that most people attend funeral prayers, so it means that not all killed would be militants."

Villagers were unable to provide help to those injured for hours, as US drones continued to hover overhead, according to Pakistani media. The US has carried out 43 drone attacks in Pakistan since January, 2008. About half of these have taken place under the Obama administration, leading to a death toll of well over 700.

The US does not officially comment on or claim responsibility for the drone attacks, and Pakistan officially condemns them as a violation of its sovereignty. The remote-controlled drone attacks in Pakistan are run by the Central Intelligence Agency. The attack on the funeral in South Waziristan comes less than one week after the new US commander for the "Af-Pak" theater, General McChrystal, announced a change in the rules of engagement in Afghanistan supposedly aimed at limiting the number of civilian casualties resulting from air strikes.

The sharp increase in drone attacks in Pakistan exposes the official
professions of concern for civilian casualties as mere lies. A recent United Nations study reveals that civilian casualties in Afghanistan increased by 40 percent in 2008, and since Obama took office, the use of air power has increased in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Just days before Tuesday's drone attacks, the Pentagon released the results of its investigation into the May 4 massacre of civilians in a US air attack on the village of Granai in Afghanistan's western province of Farah. The Pentagon, which originally denied that any civilians died, grudgingly acknowledged the death of 26. The death toll was far higher. The Afghan government says 140 civilians were killed, among them 93 children.

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Stop drone attacks on Pakistan soil
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99063§ionid=351020401

Islamabad once again loudly disapproves of US drone attacks on Pakistan's soil after attacks in the northwest of the country killed
at least 80 people.

Washington must stop drone attacks on Pakistan's soil, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told US President Barack Obama's top Security Adviser General James Jones, who is on a two-day visit to
Islamabad.

He said that Washington must stop the drone attacks 'in order to ensure success of Pakistan's strategy for isolating the militants from the tribes'.

On Tuesday, two US drones attacked suspected Taliban militants
gathered for a funeral in South Waziristan, Pakistani military and
administration officials said.

The drones sometimes kill innocent civilians and are highly unpopular among the Pakistani public, the officials said.

Jones visited Islamabad as part of a short regional tour that has
already taken him to neighboring Afghanistan to assess the United States' new strategy in the region.

He also met President Asif Ali Zardari and Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani. However in a statement that he issued, he made no mention of any rift over the use of drones to target militants in the lawless
tribal belt.

"Together, the US and Pakistan are enhancing border cooperation, trade, energy and economic development to help Pakistanis face the
challenges posed by extremists," the statement said.

"Terrorism is not simply the enemy of America - it is a direct and urgent threat to the Pakistani people."

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Basit, who on Thursday echoed his prime minister's words said that the drone attacks were
'unacceptable and must be stopped'.

This is while during the latest violence, helicopter gunships attacked a seminary in the village of Lehra in the Kurram tribal area, killing at least five militants, local government official
Mohammad Yasin said.

Jones is heading for India next on the last leg of his tour of South Asia.

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