Pakistani Militants Admit Role in Siege, Official Says

Pakistani Militants Admit Role in Siege, Official Says – NYTimes.com@import url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/css/article/screen/print.css);
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January 1, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/asia/01pstan.html?_r=1&ref=asia

By RICHARD A. OPPEL JR. and SALMAN MASOOD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani authorities have obtained confessions from members of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that they were involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November that killed more than 160 people, a Pakistani official said.

The confessions are sure to put pressure on Pakistan’s leaders; senior Pakistani officials have repeatedly complained in recent weeks that India had not provided them evidence of Pakistani complicity.

Pakistan: Militants Seize Convoy of U.S./NATO Military Vehicles

by: Brandon Friedman

Tue Nov 11, 2008 at 19:59:35 PM EST

You know things are going poorly when photos like this start showing up:

(AP photo)

Those are Taliban militants in Pakistan with one of their brand new armored humvees that they stole after ambushing a convoy of supplies headed for U.S.-led forces across the border in Afghanistan.

From the AP:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Suspected Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants’ grip across key mountain strongholds.The assault highlighted the vulnerability of a vital supply route for the 65,000 U.S. and NATO forces battling a resurgent Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan. A significant amount of supplies for the Western forces go through Pakistan.

Attacks on convoys carrying food, fuel and other supplies are common on the road. But Monday’s raid was especially large and well-organized. It also could further strain U.S.-Pakistani relations over rooting out Taliban and al-Qaida militants along the border, which remain entrenched despite military offensives and U.S. missile strikes.

Some 60 masked militants blocked the route at several points before overpowering the convoy, said Fazal Mahmood, a government official in Khyber tribal region. He identified the attackers as members of Pakistan’s Taliban movement.

US diplomat targeted in Pakistan militant attack

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/27/pakistan.usa

· Armour-plated car saved consul-general in ambush
· Extremists pledge revenge over army operations

• Saeed Shah in Islamabad
• The Guardian

A top US diplomat was ambushed yesterday by gunmen who opened fire on her armour-plated vehicle in Pakistan’s volatile north-western city of Peshawar. Lynne Tracy, America’s consul-general in the city, was unhurt, as were the other two US consular employees who were travelling with her.

C.I.A. outlines PAKISTAN LINKS with Militants

NEW YORK TIMES

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July 30, 2008

By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled secretly to Islamabad this month to confront Pakistan’s most senior officials with new information about ties between the country’s powerful spy service and militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to American military and intelligence officials.

The C.I.A. emissary presented evidence showing that members of the spy service had deepened their ties with some militant groups that were responsible for a surge of violence in Afghanistan, possibly including the suicide bombing this month of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the officials said.

The decision to confront Pakistan with what the officials described as a new C.I.A. assessment of the spy service’s activities seemed to be the bluntest American warning to Pakistan since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks about the ties between the spy service and Islamic militants.

The C.I.A. assessment specifically points to links between members of the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and the militant network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, which American officials believe maintains close ties to senior figures of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas.