http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/waziristan/ en-us Sun, 3 Jan 2010 17:30:51 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420051/posts PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – US missiles flattened an extremist hideout in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt Sunday, killing two militants in the latest strike in a recent spike in drone attacks, Pakistani officials said. The attack targeted a house in Mosakki village, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, and was the third suspected US missile attack in the tribal district in less than a week. "There may have been an important figure hiding in the house," one Pakistani security official in Miranshah told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised... AFP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420051/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 17:30:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418869/posts MIR ALI, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile struck a car carrying alleged militants in a northwestern Pakistan tribal region Friday, killing three men in the second such attack in less than a day, intelligence officials said. The strikes are part of the U.S. campaign to rid Pakistan of a creeping militant movement Washington believes is threatening the war effort in neighboring Afghanistan. The rising insecurity inside Pakistan, meanwhile, is prompting the United Nations to relocate about a quarter of its international staff in the country, officials confirmed Thursday. Both missile strikes occurred in North Waziristan, a lawless tribal region... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418869/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 10:16:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415508/posts MIR ALI, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people Saturday in a northwest Pakistani tribal region where militants focused on fighting the West in Afghanistan are concentrated, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. The missile strike was apparently the latest in a lengthy campaign of such attacks by the U.S., which rarely discusses the covert program but has in the past said it has taken out several top al-Qaida operatives. Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes but is believed to secretly aid them. Saturday's strike occurred in the Babar Raghzai area of North Waziristan and also wounded two people,... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415508/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:38:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415458/posts The US killed four Islamist terrorists in the first airstrike in more than a week in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the Saidgai region in North Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike. Four "extremists" were killed in the attack and two more were wounded, according to a report in Geo News. The Saidgai region in North Waziristan is under the control of Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar. The US has conducted two strikes in... The Long War Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415458/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:22:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410854/posts The Long War Journal: US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan Written by Bill Roggio on December 18, 2009 9:40 AM to The Long War Journal Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/12/us_airstrike_kills_t.php The US killed three Islamist terrorists in the third airstrike in two days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan. Several Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike. "The US drone missiles hit a house in the mountains," a Pakistani... Long War Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410854/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:04:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409681/posts MIR ALI, Pakistan (AP) – Two suspected U.S. missile strikes, one using multiple drones, killed 17 people in a Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border Thursday, local intelligence officials said. The officials said the second, bloodier attack involved five drones and 10 missiles – an unusually intense bombardment. The missiles rained on North Waziristan, considered a safe haven for many militants including groups determined to push the U.S. and NATO out of Afghanistan. The strikes in North Waziristan are especially sensitive because they risk angering Afghan-focused militant groups who have agreed to be neutral as Islamabad cracks down on... AP on the News-Gazette http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409681/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:14:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405703/posts PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's military on Friday killed 20 insurgents in operations against Taliban strongholds, as the prime minister warned that militants were striking back with attacks in big cities. Armed forces this year launched multiple operations across the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a haven for Al-Qaeda fighters and other militants. In Orakzai district in the centre of the tribal belt, nine militants were killed and two hideouts destroyed in airstrikes on the villages of Ghiljo and Mamoonzai, paramilitary force spokesman major Fazalur Rehman told AFP. The UN said Friday that... AFP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405703/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:32:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405010/posts The US has conducted the first unmanned airstrike in the lawless tribal agency of South Waziristan since the Pakistani Army launched an offensive there in mid-October. The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban "hideout" in Tanga in the Ladha region in South Waziristan. Ladha is one of several Taliban strongholds that were the target of the Pakistani Army's offensive against the Mehsud branch of the Taliban in South Waziristan. Four al Qaeda operatives and two Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, according to reports from the region. "Eyewitnesses said the toll could... The Long War Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405010/posts#comment Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:41:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402546/posts MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles into an al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in a Pakistani region the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing at least three militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The strike in the North Waziristan region was the first since U.S. President Barack Obama's speech last week outlining plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Obama said Pakistan must not allow its territory to be used as a sanctuary for militants. "One of the missiles hit a vehicle and all three militants in it were killed," an intelligence official told Reuters... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402546/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 02:50:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396212/posts "Pakistani Christian on Run from Taliban Death Threat Islamic extremist sermonizing leads to altercation at barbershop in South Waziristan." SNIPPET: "LAHORE, Pakistan, November 27 (CDN) — A young Christian man is in hiding in Pakistan from Taliban militants who seek to kill him for “blasphemy” because he defended his faith. In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan – a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest – when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam." SNIPPET: "He... COMPASSDirect.org - COMPASS News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396212/posts#comment Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:48:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390601/posts A suspected US drone aircraft fired two missiles in North Waziristan on Friday, killing eight people, the second such attack this week. Eight militants were killed in a US missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Friday, officials said. The United States has carried out 45 attacks with its pilotless, missile-firing aircraft in northwest Pakistan this year as its forces in neighbouring Afghanistan have faced an intensifying Taliban insurgency. The Nation http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390601/posts#comment Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:09:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389444/posts The US has killed four Taliban fighters in just the second airstrike in Pakistan's tribal areas this month. Unmanned aircraft, likely remotely piloted Predator or Reaper drones, hit a Taliban compound in the village of Shanakhora, which lies six miles west of Miramshah in North Waziristan, with two Hellfire missiles. “It was a US drone attack which targeted a militant compound killing four militants and wounding five others,” a senior Pakistani security official in the region told AFP. “The compound was being used by Taliban militants, however it is not clear whether there were any foreign militants or high-value targets,”... The Long War Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389444/posts#comment Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:54:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2388256/posts SARAROGHA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani forces have captured most main Taliban bases in their offensive in South Waziristan and will soon fan out into the rugged countryside to hunt for militants there, commanders said on Tuesday. Soldiers have advanced faster than expected in their month-long offensive, seizing main roads and Taliban bases but militant leaders have apparently melted away while their bombers have unleashed carnage in towns. The United States, weighing options for how to turn an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan, has welcomed the offensive but is keen to see Pakistan tackle Afghan Taliban factions based in lawless enclaves along... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2388256/posts#comment Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:15:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387817/posts The CIA has paid millions of dollars to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) since 9/11, "accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget", says a media report. The ISI also collected "tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA programme", which pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a newspaper reported on Monday citing current and former US officials. An intense debate has been triggered within the US government due to "long-standing suspicions that the ISI continues to help Taliban extremists who undermine US efforts in Afghanistan and provide sanctuary to Al Qaeda... The Economic Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2387817/posts#comment Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:17:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380008/posts ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army entered the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a major offensive in the northwest on Friday, as gunmen wounded a senior army officer and a soldier in the capital. The operation in South Waziristan, the main Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary in Pakistan, has sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that have killed about 300 civilians and security forces in the past month. The shooting in Islamabad was the third such attack in about two weeks. The militants hope the attacks will weaken the army's resolve as it pushes deeper into the isolated, mountainous region... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380008/posts#comment Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:09:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2378828/posts MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles on Thursday into North Waziristan, a major al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in northwest Pakistan, killing two people, Pakistani intelligence officials said. Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2378828/posts#comment Thu, 5 Nov 2009 02:05:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377581/posts Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the US jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark. Headley traveled to North Waziristan and afterward offered his view on the number of al Qaeda and other foreign jihadis in the tribal agencies' largest towns (in response to a think tank survey that said a significant number of people in the northwest approved of the Predator attacks against al Qaeda): Long War Journal - Threat Matrix http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2377581/posts#comment Tue, 3 Nov 2009 18:50:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2376982/posts As Pakistani troops advance through South Waziristan, they are coming across quickly abandoned facilities apparently long used by Islamic terror organizations. South Waziristan, and its pro-Taliban Mehsud tribe, has long been a place where government officials only went with permission of the locals. And the locals apparently believed their own propaganda that government troops would not get far if they tried to invade the area. Army artillery and helicopter gunships, aided by air force fighter-bombers, proved more than a match for the tribal warriors, who soon fled to the safer hills. The Islamic terrorists fled with them, often failing to... The Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2376982/posts#comment Tue, 3 Nov 2009 00:21:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376811/posts Pakistani forces say they have seized control of the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, one of the Taliban's key regional strongholds. The army said it had full control of the town, the latest capture in an offensive against militants that began in South Waziristan on 17 October. The offensive has sparked a string of suicide bomb attacks. About 35 people were killed in an attack in Rawalpindi and seven were injured on the outskirts of Lahore. Rewards offered Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, in the capital Islamabad, said that the Kaniguram area had been "completely cleared of terrorists".... BBC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376811/posts#comment Mon, 2 Nov 2009 20:43:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376390/posts The Pakistani military has launched a large offensive involving 30,000 soldiers into South Waziristan, one of the tribal agencies most hospitable to the Taliban and like-minded terrorists. Following frightening Taliban attacks on the Army headquarters and an air base suspected of storing nuclear weapons, the Pakistani government began a belated but aggressive campaign. In order for the Pakistanis to succeed however, the U.S. must demonstrate a similar determination to rout the Taliban in Afghanistan by launching a comprehensive counter-insurgency campaign. The U.S. has been secretly helping the Pakistanis carry out their offensive, providing them with intelligence from unmanned aerial vehicles... FrontPage Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376390/posts#comment Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:21:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376169/posts SHERWANGI, Pakistan (AFP) – Hundreds of foreign fighters were on the run in this battle-scarred region near Afghanistan Sunday, the military said, pressing a major offensive into a third week. Between 600 and 800 foreign militants had been in around Kanigurram town but their resistance was broken by heavy bombing from jet fighters, helicopters and artillery, Brigadier Mohammad Ihsan told reporters on a visit to the normally closed conflict area. Commanders have described Kanigurram as a major Tehreek-e-Taliban "operational centre" and base for Uzbek fighters. "They are on the run," Ihsan said. The foreigners were mostly Uzbeks but also Chechens... AFP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2376169/posts#comment Mon, 2 Nov 2009 01:01:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375928/posts ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani forces are zeroing in on two major Taliban bases in South Waziristan region as their offensive pushes deeper into militant bastion on the Afghan border, the military said on Sunday. The army launched a major assault in South Waziristan on September 17 to seize control of the lawless land after a string of attacks by militants, including a stunning assault on the army headquarters that killed more than 150 people. The offensive is a major test for the Pakistani government and the military to stem the rising tide of Islamist militancy and is being closely followed... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2375928/posts#comment Sun, 1 Nov 2009 17:08:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374292/posts SHAWANGAI, Pakistan -- An alleged member of the Hamburg, Germany, terror cell linked to the Sept. 11 attacks is believed to be among al Qaeda leaders helping the Taliban fight Pakistani forces in South Waziristan, Pakistani authorities said Thursday. A German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a close associate of Sept. 11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the 2001 attacks, was among documents recovered this week by Pakistani troops from an abandoned militant compound in Shawangai. The mountain village in South Waziristan was used as an al Qaeda and Taliban command base until as recently as this week, a military... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374292/posts#comment Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:02:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2367275/posts SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said." CHICAGO TRIBUNE.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2367275/posts#comment Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:39:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2372047/posts ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's army pushed deeper into a Taliban sanctuary close to the Afghan border Tuesday, claiming to have killed 42 militants in the latest stage of an offensive against extremists blamed for relentless attacks in recent weeks . In the capital, gunmen attacked a high-ranking Pakistani army officer in the second targeted shooting against top military brass in less than a week, part of a wave of violence sweeping the country in apparent retaliation for the 11-day long offensive in South Waziristan. The army officer, and his mother who was traveling with him, escaped unhurt from the assault in... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2372047/posts#comment Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:14:16 GMT