11 militants dead in Orakzai operation

TrendPK.com

ORAKZAI AGENCY: At least 11 militants were killed and 19 wounded when security forces pounded their hideouts in Upper Orakzai region on Thursday.

According to details, security forces shelled suspected militant positions in an area of Upper Orakzai Agency, killing 11 militants and injuring 19 others.

Seven militant hideouts were also destroyed.

Reports say security forces surrounded the entire area. TrendPK

Several rounded up in Orangi operation

KARACHI: A number of suspects have been taken under arrest amid a joint search operation carried out by police and rangers in separate areas of Orangi Town on late Saturday, TrendPK reported.

During the operation, all the entry and exit points of Orangi Town remained cordoned off under the security of police and rangers.

Sources said that area women staged protest against operation and arrests.

Law enforcement agencies’ sources said arrested suspects have been transferred to unknown location for interrogation.

Meanwhile, at least 10 women have been reportedly injured in firing from security forces and the subsequent stampede.

Furious people pelted police mobile with stones to protest against firing on women. TrendPK

Pakistan launches military operation near Afghan border

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces have launched a major offensive against militants in the northwestern tribal region of Kurram on the Afghan border, Pakistan’s military spokesman said on Monday.

Death toll in Syria Friday protests rise to 44-group

AMMAN: Syrian security forces shot dead at least 44 civilians in attacks on pro democracy demonstrations that had erupted across Syria on Friday, the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights said on Saturday.

Prominent rights campaigner Ammar Qurabi, who heads of the organisation, said more than half were killed in the northwest province of Idlib, where tanks deployed on Friday to crush large demonstrations against autocratic rule.

Iraqi forces end gunmen’s siege, 45 killed in attack

BAGHDAD: The death toll from an attack on the Iraqi provincial council headquarters in Tikrit rose to 45 on Tuesday and Iraqi security forces ended a siege by gunmen in the building, a health official said.

Jasim al-Dulaimi, head of the health operations centre in Salahuddin province, said three provincial council members and seven insurgents were among the dead.

NATO disputes Afghan authorities over deadly raid

KABUL: The NATO-led force in Afghanistan disputed on Monday an accusation by the Afghan government that foreign forces had violated a security deal by conducting a night raid in Kabul that killed two guards last week.

Under the 2008 deal, Afghan authorities have to approve and lead all security operations in the Afghan capital. The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said the rules had been ignored by foreign forces and that two senior Afghan policemen have been suspended over Friday’s raid.

But Brigadier General Josef Blotz, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said ISAF troops had coordinated with Afghan security forces.

“ISAF coordinated with Afghan security forces to move on an area of interest, so we followed the usual procedures and the operation was partnered,” Blotz said.

Kabul raid kills two after US embassy threat: ISAF

KABUL: Afghan and foreign troops killed two men during a raid in downtown Kabul after receiving a “credible threat” to attack the U.S. Embassy in the capital, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Saturday.

ISAF confirmed Friday’s operation after Afghan security officials had said foreign troops were involved in a night raid that targeted a compound belonging to a private security firm.

The raid came after Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said this week it had separately detained three people it said had been instructed by the Pakistani Taliban to attack the presidential palace and U.S. embassy in Kabul.

“After receiving a credible threat to attack the U.S. Embassy, ISAF coordinated with Afghan security forces to move on an area of interest,” ISAF said in a statement late on Friday.

Al-Qaeda suspect killed by Saudi police in shootout

Saudi security forces shot dead a suspected Al-Qaeda militant and arrested another after one of them opened fire at agents at a checkpoint on Friday, the interior ministry said.

One of the two men, who was disguised as a woman, opened fire after their car was stopped at the checkpoint in the central town of Wadi al-Dawasir. We have a strong suspicion it is Al-Qaeda, but we are still trying to identify the dead man and questioning the detained suspect, a spokesman said. Saudi security forces have stepped up their campaign against Al-Qaeda after the Islamic militant groups’s Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a regional organisation, which claimed responsibility for the failed bombing of a US-bound passenger plane last Christmas.

US scathing about Indian security forces: WikiLeaks

United States News: The United States may have emerged as a key partner with India in counter-terror efforts post-26/11, but it has a very dim view of the capabilities of Indian security forces.It also felt till just a couple of years ago that India was reluctant to have an effective anti-terror partnership because of suspicions about American policies towards Pakistan, its independent foreign policy stance and sensitivities over Muslim sentiments.India’s police and security forces are overworked and hampered by bad police practices, including the widespread use of torture in interrogations, rampant corruption, poor training, and a general inability to conduct solid forensic investigations, the US embassy observed in a cable it sent on February 23, 2007, after a not-so-satisfactory meeting of an Indo-US counter-terrorism joint working group.The memo further said, India’s security forces also regularly cut corners to avoid working through India’s lagging justice system, which has approximately 13 judges per million people. Thus Indian police officials often do not respond to our requests for information about attacks or our offers of support because they are covering up poor practices, rather than rejecting our help outright.The communication disclosed in the cable refers to the US unease over the arrest of a computer expert, Mukesh Saini, who was working with India’s National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), and was arrested on charges of spying for Americans. US’s acting coordinator for counter-terrorism, Frank Urbancic, took up the matter with his Indian interlocutor, K C Singh, then an additional secretary in the MEA.Urbancic called Saini a key working-level interlocutor at the NCTC, dismissed the charge of espionage and said his arrest had cast a negative shadow on the functioning of the counter-terror working group.The criticism of the Indian police only echo the widely-held perception that it is ill-equipped to meet the growing terror threat and other internal security challenges. The limitations were exposed fully by the Lashkar-e-Taiba gunmen involved in during 26/11 strike, but the brutally candid opinion, coming from a foreign power, that too one seen with a chip on its shoulder, will lead to considerable heartburn.In a communication leaked earlier by the whistle-blower website, the US had raised serious doubts on India’s ability to implement its cold war doctrine a rapid, short and limited push within Pakistan’s territory as a reprisal against terror attacks and other hostilities.The cable sent by the serving US ambassador on February 16, 2010, Timothy Roemer, called the doctrine, a mixture of myth and reality. The value of the doctrine to the government of India may lie more in the plan’s existence than in any real world application.Saying that India was diffident in teaming up with the US in the war on terror, the 2007 cable said, India’s lingering zero-sum suspicion of US policies towards Pakistan, its fiercely independent foreign policy stance, its traditional go-it-alone strategy towards its security and its domestic political sensitivities over the sentiments of its large Muslim population, have all contributed to India’s caution in working with us on a joint counter-terrorism strategy.

Iran Mosque Suicide Bombing kills 38

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in the Iranian city of Chabahar Wednesday, killing 38 people and wounding more than 50 as Shiites marked the climax of Ashura, a Red Crescent official said.

An individual walked up to some Red Crescent ambulances and blew himself up, the official.

State television said three bombers took part in the attack in the main square outside the Imam Hossein mosque in the southeastern city. One blew himself up, the second’s explosives failed to detonate and he was wounded by police, and the third has been arrested, the television reported. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi told the official IRNA news agency that there had been two explosions, one after the other. The bomb attack came on the eve of the final day of Ashura, one of the high points of the Shiite calendar when large crowds of worshippers gather in mosques across Iran.

Unlike most of Iran, Sistan-Baluchestan province where Chabahar is situated has a significant Sunni community and has seen persistent unrest in recent years by the Sunni militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God). There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing but over the past decade, Jundallah claimed many deadly attacks on Iranian security forces as well as assaults that have led to civilian deaths. In July, it claimed responsibility for an attack on the Grand Mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan that targeted members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and killed 28 people.

Last month, the US officially designated Jundallah a foreign terrorist organization, drawing a cautious welcome from Iran which had previously accused Washington of supporting the group.

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