11 militants killed Kurram Agency

 

Pakistani forces killed 11 militants and wounded 19 in the northwest on Friday, security officials said, in a crackdown in the Kurram tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

 

The military fired artillery shells at three suspected hideouts in the Mamozai area of Kurram, where dozens of people have been killed in fierce fighting between Pakistani soldiers and insurgents in the last few weeks.

 

The death toll could not be independently verified and militants often dispute official accounts.

 

Pakistan s military has been conducting operations against militants in Kurram since the beginning of the year.

 

Kurram s harsh terrain limits the movement of ground forces, and gunship helicopters and bombers are often called in for support.
 

Af-Pak Jihad attracting foreign fighters: Officials

 

The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

 

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

 

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

 

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

 

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion — a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

 

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Moamer Kadhafi from power, he said.

 

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

 

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting Al-Qaeda s (and associated entities ) training camps and pipelines.”

 

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within Al-Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

 

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based Al-Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network s difficulties.

 

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

 

“It s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University s Center on Law and Security.

 

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants — he was the Al-Qaeda brand.

 

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for Al-Qaeda,” he said.

 

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it s likely that the number of volonteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don t think it s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

 

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

 

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.
 

Gets support, not orders from Iran: Hezbollah

 

Nasrallah acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that his militant movement received financial and material support from Iran, but denied it took instructions from the Islamic Republic.

 

Nasrallah said Hezbollah previously only confirmed Iranian political and moral backing because it did not want “to embarrass our brothers in Iran,” but had changed policy because Iran s leadership had announced its support in public.

 

“Yes, we received moral, and political and material support in all possible forms from the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1982,” Nasrallah told supporters by videolink in a speech marking the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad.

 

“In the past we used to tell half the story and stay silent on the other half … When they asked us about the material and financial and military support we were silent.”

 

Nasrallah said Iran had not issued orders to Hezbollah since the movement was founded 30 years ago, adding that if Israel attacked Iran s nuclear sites, the leadership in Iran “would not ask anything of Hezbollah.” He said if that were to happen, Hezbollah s own leadership would “sit down, think and decide what to do.”

 

Speculation has grown that Israel might be planning to attack Iranian nuclear facilities after strong public comments by Israeli leaders about Iran s atomic ambitions.

 

Many analysts believe that in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran, Hezbollah – which fought a punishing 34-day war with Israel in 2006 – would attack the Jewish state.

 

Nasrallah s statement will not surprise world powers, including The United States, which lists the group as a terrorist organization, and says it has military support from Iran and Syria.

 

Hezbollah was set up 30 years ago by Iran s Revolutionary Guards to fight Israeli forces which had invaded Lebanon.
Nasrallah denied U.S. charges that his movement was involved in money laundering or drugs smuggling, saying Iran s support meant the movement was not in need of cash.

 

Federal prosecutors in the United States said in December three Lebanese financial institutions linked to Hezbollah laundered more than $240 million through the U.S. used car market. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials have also said Hezbollah has become involved in the drug trade, facilitating distribution and sale of cocaine in West Africa.

 

Nasrallah said Hezbollah was not involved in money laundering, nor in drug smuggling which was religiously forbidden. “No drugs, no money laundering and not trade at all,” he said of Hezbollah activities.

 

The Hezbollah leader also defended his support for close ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an 11-month uprising against his rule. The United Nations says Assad s crackdown on protests has killed 5,000 people.

 

Nasrallah, who has praised the uprisings in other Arab countries which toppled three entrenched leaders last year, said Assad still enjoyed support from the army and a large section of the population, and criticized Syria s opposition for rejecting Assad s promised reforms and offers of dialogue.

 

“They say we don t want dialogue and we don t want reform (because) it s too late … It s too late when there is fighting in Syria and there are people pushing it to civil war?” “They are betting on the West, on America, on money and weapons to overthrow the regime. But this is a losing bet,” he added.
 

UN reports mass exodus due to Mali unrest

 

About 22,000 people have fled fighting in Mali to the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, the United Nations said Tuesday.

 

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Geneva that most of the 10,000 refugees who have arrived in Niger are sleeping in the open with little access to shelter, clean water, food or medicine.

 

He said a further 9,000 have arrived in Mauritania and 3,000 have fled to Burkina Faso because of attacks that started Jan. 17 by a Tuareg rebel group known as the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad.

 

The rebels claim they are fighting for independence from the Malian government. Many have returned from Libya following the death of leader Moammar Gadhafi, who included Tuaregs in his armed forces.

 

In just over two weeks, the rebels have attacked at least six towns in the north of landlocked Mali. It s the first time the Tuaregs have picked up arms since the last rebellion ended in early 2009.

 

Felix Kambire, a spokesman for Burkina Faso s security minister, said the 3,000 refugees who have fled there include army officers, paramilitary and high-ranking civil servants.

 

Ousmane Ag Dala, a former civil servant in charge of coordinating development activities in northern Mali, said thousands more refugees have fled to Burkina Faso and even more are expected.

 

“We are fleeing insecurity because we have come to understand that there is difference between those fighting in the north and the rest of us who suddenly found themselves out of their homes and offices,” Dala told The Associated Press Tuesday.

 

“We have made peace in 1963, in 1990 and in 2000 to show the Malian people that we are a nation,” Dala said alluding to the various Tuareg rebellions that occurred in Mali.

 

Col. Assane Ag Medi, a former rebel officer of the Malian army, said he arrived in Burkina Faso with some 60 vehicles full of refugees.

 

“Despite my loyalty to the defense and security forces of my country, I have been forced to leave my country like many others including family members of ministers, officers, diplomats,” he said. “That means national unity is endangered.”

 

Burkina Faso s government was to meet with its partners later Tuesday to figure out how to meet the needs of the refugees.

Pakistan clashes kill 7 soldiers, 18 militants

 

A government official says militants have killed seven Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in an attack near the Afghan border.

 

The official, Jamil Khan, says that around 40 militants opened fire on a checkpoint in Kurram region on Friday. He says 18 insurgents were killed in retaliatory fire.

 

Kurram is one of the seven Pakistani border regions where the military has battled for several years against militants. Fighting in Kurram over the past week has resulted in dozens of reported fatalities.

 

The region is off-limits to journalists so it is difficult to independently verify accounts.
 

Tunisian forces kill two in clashes with armed group

TUNIS: Tunisian forces killed two gunmen and captured a third after clashes on Wednesday night with what appeared to be a group of Islamists smuggling weapons in the east of the country, several security and government sources said.  

Five Tunisian security forces were also wounded in the fighting near the industrial port city of Sfax, 237 kms (147 miles) southeast of Tunis, and police and military had cordoned off the area, security sources said.  

The clashes were the first to take place in Tunisia since elections in October ushered in a government dominated by moderate Islamist group Ennahda and two secular partners.   

Tunisia’s interior ministry forces were shaken by the revolt that ousted Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and brought down his police state a year ago and secularist groups have accused Ennahda of being too soft on armed militants and religious extremists.   

Mohammed al-Tunsi, a National Guard official, had said the three gunmen appeared to be Salafis, ultra-conservative Islamists, but Interior Minister Ali Larayed, a senior member of Ennahda, told reporters on Wednesday night it was too early to identify them.   

He described the incident as “dangerous” and promised more details on Thursday.  

Larayed said a large stash of assault rifles and ammunition had been discovered in the vehicle the three men were travelling in. The gunmen abandoned their car and hid in the surrounding countryside where they exchanged fire with police and military for several hours while a helicopter buzzed overhead.  

A spokesman for President Moncef al-Marzouki told state television he believed the gunmen were part of a 20-strong gang that smuggled weapons through Tunisia.  

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring protests that swept the region in 2011, has made a relatively smooth transition to an elected constituent assembly that will draft a new constitution for the country.   

However, protests and strikes have continued in the centre of the country, where unemployment remains high, and security forces are under pressure to do more to rein in Salafis who have asserted themselves since the uprising and to secure the borders with Algeria and Libya. AGENCIES

Bell hopes to bat big for England in 3rd test

 

And he wants to do so after featuring in two humbling test defeats against Pakistan.

 

Bell has scores of 0, 4, 29, 3 in the four innings and has fallen to star offspinner Saeed Ajmal three times. Ajmal s 10-wicket haul lifted Pakistan to 10-wicket win in the first test before he added seven more in Pakistan s convincing 72-run victory at Abu Dhabi last week.

 

Pakistan will be looking for its first ever clean sweep against England when the third test begins on Friday.

 

“I m desperate as ever to get some big runs in this last test,” Bell said.

 

“We are all preparing and training as hard as possible to make sure we get it right in the third (test).”

 

Bell will be fighting with teammates Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan to keep their places in the playing XI after all three combined for only 94 runs in the two tests.

 

It was not only Ajmal who made England look vulnerable against spinners. Left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman s 6-25 shot out Andrew Strauss  team for a poor 72 at Abu Dhabi

 

England s lowest ever total in a test against Pakistan. ”Look, it s been really tough,” Bell said. “We know over here and especially in the subcontinent the hardest part is starting your innings.

 

“Generally things get a little bit easier the longer you are there, unfortunately I ve got some balls early in my innings that have got me out.”

 

Both Ajmal and Rehman have grabbed 29 wickets. Add in the five by offspinner Mohammad Hafeez and England has lost 34 of 40 wickets to slow bowlers in the series.

 

“When you re playing quality spin, it s important to stay there for a period of time,” Bell said.

 

“You lose two to three wickets in periods and then you go quite flat, that s what we ve been caught into.

 

“I think we found it particularly hard to start our innings. Unfortunately none of us in this series have got past those first 20-25 deliveries.”

 

England has not won a test series against any of the big three Asian teams India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka  in the subcontinent for a decade. It has failed miserably in subcontinent-like conditions in this Gulf country after Pakistan was forced to choose offshore venues for  home  series due to security concerns back home.

 

“If you look at English cricket history we ve never played great cricket in the subcontinent,” Bell said.

 

“We ve started to play very well everywhere else in the world and this is the last little bit of hurdle that we need to get over.

 

“We are working hard as ever, we are looking at areas that we can improve mentally and technically. There s no doubt, we are all hungry enough.”

 

England will have two more chances to remove its subcontinent jinx this year playing against Sri Lanka and India. Bell felt it was high time he and the batsmen showed progress against spinners on turning tracks and support their bowlers. ”There s a lot of cricket in the subcontinent coming up and if you want to stay No. 1 in the world then we have to improve and get some runs because our bowlers have been fantastic out here taking 20 wickets so its up to the batting unit to give them support.”

 

Kurram clashes kill 7 troops, 25 militants

PESHAWAR: Dozens of heavily armed Taliban militants attacked a Pakistani military post on Tuesday, sparking clashes that killed seven soldiers and wounded another 10, the military said.

Helicopter gunships were mobilised when the fighting broke out in the same Jogi area as clashes that killed six soldiers on January 25 in the district of Kurram, part of Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border.

At the time, security forces claimed to have taken control of Jogi, which is strategically located near Orakzai district, birthplace of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

A senior military official told AFP that “more than 300 Taliban attacked” the checkpost at around midnight (1900 GMT Monday) in central Kurram, which is on the Taliban route into North Waziristan and onto the Afghan border.

Pakistani security forces retaliated and killed around 25 militants, but seven soldiers were also killed and 10 others wounded, the official said.

Independent confirmation of death tolls is largely impossible in the tribal belt, a Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold barred to journalists and aid workers.

“Heavy fighting continued until this morning,” the military official said.

Local administration official Sher Bahadur confirmed the military deaths but put the number of wounded paramilitaries at 12.

Last July, Pakistan launched an offensive to evict militants from Kurram, mirroring operations that it has carried out — with limited success — across much of the rest of the tribal belt, only for militants to regroup and return.

Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan is rife with a homegrown insurgency, Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On Monday, President Barack Obama confirmed for the first time that US drones target Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan’s tribal badlands, a programme that has escalated under his administration.

The government in Islamabad, whose relations with Washington sank to an all-time low last year, appeared to shrug off the confirmation but made a rare public acknowledgement that the programme had “tactical advantages”.

Speaking on Google+ and YouTube, Obama vigorously defended the strikes, saying that many were carried out “on Al-Qaeda operatives in places where the capacities of that military in that country may not be able to get them”.

Pakistan, whose relationship with the United States deteriorated in 2011 over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, says more than 3,000 troops have died fighting militants. AGENCIES

Afghans to hold talks with Taliban in Saudi Arabia

 

Afghan officials and representatives of the Taliban insurgents fighting the Western-backed government are to hold peace talks in Saudi Arabia, a Riyadh-based Afghan diplomat said on Monday.

 

“An Afghan government delegation and a Taliban delegation will hold talks in Saudi Arabia,” the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity, but he could not give a timeframe. He said the talks in Saudi Arabia would be separate from US-brokered meetings in Qatar and would be the first such talks to take place in the Sunni Muslim kingdom.

 

In Kabul, however, a government spokesman cautioned that no steps had yet been taken to start talks in Saudi Arabia.

 

“No practical steps have been taken to start talks in Saudi Arabia, it has only been a suggestion,” Akim Hasher, head of the Government Media and Information Centre, told AFP.

 

“The Afghan government is very clear on talks — we have always preferred Saudi to Qatar,” he said. “There is a possibility that the talks will take place in Saudi as well — Qatar is definitely not the only option.”

 

Taliban negotiators have begun preliminary discussions with the United States in Qatar on plans for peace talks aimed at ending the decade-long war in Afghanistan. They have also announced plans to set up an office in Doha.

 

A member of the Taliban s leadership council, the Pakistan-based Quetta Shura, said Sunday “the idea that the Taliban should have a point of contact in Saudi is pushed by the Pakistan and Afghan governments.”

 

Pakistan was feeling “sidelined” from the US-brokered talks, he said.

 

Supporting this theory, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai announced Sunday that Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar would visit Kabul on Wednesday.

 

Mosazai told a news conference the visit would mark a “new phase” in cooperation between the two countries, adding that Khar would hold talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Zulmai Rasoul and President Hamid Karzai.

 

“Both sides will discuss the fight against terrorism and Pakistan s essential support to the peace process in Afghanistan.

 

Khar s visit comes after Pakistan made overtures to Afghanistan to resume talks on the Taliban that broke down following the assassination of Kabul s chief peace envoy, Burhanuddin Rabbani, in September, officials said.

 

The Afghan diplomat, however, said there were no plans for a third party to attend the negotiations in Saudi Arabia. “So far, there is no third party that will be present at the talks,” he said.

 

The Afghan government has not yet officially confirmed the Saudi talks, but on Sunday, in response to questions on the plan, the foreign ministry spokesman said his government supports “any steps towards the Afghan peace process.”

 

A senior Afghan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged on Sunday that the Saudi talks would take place but also did not say when.

 

“We will always pursue all roads towards peace in Afghanistan, including contacts with the Taliban that are not limited to the Qatar office,” the official told AFP.
 

Arab League seeks Beijing, Moscow support on Syria

 

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi is fighting an uphill battle to court Russia and China to win their support at the United Nations for the latest Arab plan aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria.

 

Russia has made it clear that regime change in Damascus constitutes a “red line,” but Arabi said on Sunday as he left for New York that his organisation was in talks with Moscow and Beijing.

 

He hoped the two veto-wielding countries would change their stand on a draft resolution under discussion at the UN Security Council, based on an Arab proposal for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy.

 

The Arab League chief, accompanied by Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, is to present details of the plan to the council on Tuesday.

 

Qatar says the plan foresees the “peaceful departure” of the Syrian regime.

 

It also calls for an end to the violence and a power transfer, with Assad handing over responsibilities to his deputy, before the launch of negotiations between the government and the opposition.

 

The Syrian authorities have flatly rejected this formula.

 

And Moscow, which along with Beijing represents one of Damascus s staunchest allies, remains hostile to the Arab proposition, saying it crosses its clearly drawn lines.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday also slammed the Arab League s decision to suspend its hard-won monitoring mission in Syria.

 

The Arab League suspended its observer mission the previous day saying it took the decision in response to an “upsurge of violence whose victims are innocent civilians.”

 

Russia and China vetoed a previous European-backed draft resolution at the Security Council last October that would have condemned Damascus, accusing the West of seeking regime change.

 

The League s decision to turn to the Security Council, experts say, aims to step up the pressure on Assad s regime but it is not likely to put a stop to the violence.
 

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