Yemen targets northern fighters

SOURCE-ALJAZEERA
Yemeni troops, backed by tanks and fighter aircraft, have launched a major offensive on the stronghold of Shia fighters in northern Yemen.

A second day of clashes on Wednesday came a day after the government vowed it would strike at the north's Houthi fighters with an "iron fist".

Government forces fired missiles on the headquarters of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the fighter's leader, in mountainous Saada province, tribal sources and fighters said.

Tribal sources told Al Jazeera that the army had launched air, artillery and missile attacks on the Malaheedh, Mahadher, Khafji and Hasama districts.

A statement from the Yemen's Supreme Security Committee said: "The state will strike these elements ... with an iron fist until they surrender themselves to justice."

'All-out war'

Mohammed al-Qadhi, the foreign correspondent for Abu Dhabi's The National newspaper, said that hundreds had fled the fighting.
"They're launching an all-out war right now and we've heard reports from Sadaa that the military is using planes to attack the strongholds of the rebels and so many people are fleeing," he told Al Jazeera.

"The skirmishes and the clashes have been going on since last June, between the two sides.

"So many people have been fleeing to Sadaa town and this has put pressure on the camps of the refugees there."

The five-year-old battle between Yemen's Sunni-led government against the Shia Muslim Houthi fighters is one of a widening series of conflicts threatening to destabilise the country.

Yemen, one of the poorest Arab countries, is also combating a wave of al-Qaeda attacks and rising secessionist sentiment in the south.

'Repeated attacks'

Officials say the Houthi fighters, who belong to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam, want to restore a form of clerical rule prevalent until the 1960s in Yemen when it was overthrown in a military coup.

A government committee criticised the fighters for not abiding by an agreement to end hostilities announced by Ali Abdullah al-Saleh, the Yemeni president, in July 2008.

In comments published in the press on Monday, al-Saleh blamed the fighters for the flare-up of violence in the north, saying he was "pained by attacks undermining security, repeated attacks targeting civilians, vandalism".

But Mohammed Abdel-Salam, a spokesman for the fighters, was reported by The Associated Press as saying that the group is only fighting for improved living conditions and wants the Yemeni army out.

"We will continue the fight until the army is withdrawn from the province," he was quoted as saying.

"We are only defending ourselves."

Regional stability

Over the past few weeks, local officials say the fighters have taken control of more of Saada province from government forces.

Last week, they seized an important army post near Saada's provincial capital on a strategic highway linking the capital Sana with Saudi Arabia after 12 hours of intense combat.

They have also taken control of several more towns.

Local officials said on Tuesday that the fighters seized key army posts near al-Malahidh crossing, about 20km south of the Saudi border.

The stability of Yemen is a crucial concern for both Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with Yemen, and the US.

Riyadh fears the conflict could make the kingdom's own Shia tribes directly across the border more restive

Pakistan denies militants attacked nuclear sites

source -dawn.com
ISLAMABAD: A military spokesman denied a recent report that militants have attacked Pakistan's nuclear facilities three times in two years, saying Wednesday there is ‘absolutely no chance’ the country's atomic weapons could fall into terrorist hands.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said an article written by a UK-based security expert was false because none of the bases named actually had any nuclear facilities.

‘It is factually incorrect,’ he said.

Taliban militants' brief takeover of areas some 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, raised new fears about the security of Pakistan's atomic weapons being seized by extremists linked to al-Qaeda, although the country insists its arsenal is secure.

Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University's Pakistan Security Research Unit, wrote that several militant attacks have already hit military bases where nuclear components are secretly stored. The article appeared in the July newsletter of the Combating Terrorism Center of the US Military Academy at West Point.

The most recent assault, he wrote, was the August 2008 coordinated suicide bombings of the Wah Cantonment ordnance factory, which he said is considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly sites.

The other two attacks were in late 2007 on the Sargodha air base, which Gregory identified as a nuclear missile storage facility and the nuclear air base at Kamra, the article said.

While all three suicide attacks appeared aimed at causing maximum carnage and not seizing weapons, Gregory said they highlighted the vulnerability of the nuclear storage facilities to assault.

‘The risk of the transfer of nuclear weapons, weapons components or nuclear expertise to terrorists in Pakistan is genuine.’

Abbas said Wednesday that none of the military bases named were used to store atomic weapons. He said the Wah ordnance factory makes small arms ammunition, Kamra is an air force facility and Sargodha is an air force ammunition dump for conventional weapons.

‘These are nowhere close to any nuclear facility,’ he said.

He added that the Pentagon has recently expressed faith in Pakistan's security measures, which among other things keep weapons components and triggering devices separate.

Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Plans Division which handles Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, told journalists last year that Pakistan uses 10,000 soldiers to keep the weapons safe and has received up to $10 million in US assistance to enhance security.

‘We are very confident that the security standards that we are following are world-standard,’ Abbas said. ‘There is absolutely no chance of them falling into the hands of any extremists or terrorists.’

Are Taliban Leaders Fighting Among Themselves?

SOURCE-TIME
As far as the U.S. and Pakistan are concerned, there is now "credible evidence" that Baitullah Mehsud, the murderous head of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a CIA-operated drone strike last Wednesday, Aug. 5. Conclusive proof, said Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, could come only from a DNA test on what remains of Mehsud (the drone strike reportedly severed his body in half). However, the remote village in South Waziristan where the attack took place is dominated by the Taliban and other militants, difficult to access
And that inaccessibility has made the details of the battle to become the successor to Mehsud equally hard to pin down. Through the weekend, speculation has been rife that Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman, two Taliban leaders tipped for the top slot, turned their guns on each other as the power struggle within turned bloody. Malik insisted that one of the men was dead. General James Jones, President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, said that signs of internal dissension were encouraging. But on Sunday, Wali-ur-Rehman called a Reuters reporter familiar with his voice to assert that he was still among the living and to deny any rift, claiming that Baitullah was also alive. On Monday, Hakimullah, also speaking to reporters who said they recognized his voice, made the same assertion.
Baitullah Mehsud, however, has not surfaced to say he is alive, as he has done after previous claims of his death. Many analysts say it is only natural that the Taliban would deny Mehsud's death as they struggle among themselves to decide on a new leader. Replacing Mehsud will not be easy for the Taliban. Under his charismatic and fearsome leadership, at least 13 separate and disparate groups were able to forge a fractious but powerful alliance. If Mehsud is gone, that alliance is likely to fracture. His replacement will determine the new direction of the Pakistani Taliban: it may fall under the greater influence of al-Qaeda, concentrate on fighting in Afghanistan, continue fighting chiefly in Pakistan or break up into small, rival groups.
Interior Minister Malik warned on Monday, Aug. 10, that al-Qaeda is trying to install its own "chief terrorist" as the next leader while the Pakistani Taliban lies in disarray. "It will take some time for [the Pakistani Taliban] to regroup," he said. "The other thing which is a bit worrying is that al-Qaeda is getting grouped in the same place, and now they are trying to find out somebody to install him as the leader ..." Al-Qaeda has long wielded influence over Mehsud and the Pakistani Taliban, using the tribal areas along the Afghan border as a hiding place and trading funds and training for scores of suicide bombers prepared to carry out its attacks.

It is unlikely that al-Qaeda will install one of its own members in the leadership slot. "All Taliban groups have links with al-Qaeda," says Amir Rana, an expert on Islamist militancy. "But at the same time, they want to keep their identity independent. They don't mix in the structure of the Taliban. They want to avoid any confrontation with them. They want to stay there, use their facilities for training while providing ideological leadership." The Pashtun-dominated Taliban are also unlikely to accept an Arab jihadist as their leader.

Another possible direction is for the group's new leadership to concentrate its fire west of the border, in Afghanistan. "Baitullah was the one person who was focusing [most] of his attention on Pakistan and trying to create a disturbance here rather than Afghanistan," says Shaukat Qadir, a retired army brigadier turned analyst. "His followers will probably shift focus back to Afghanistan. This is one of the reasons why he lost support among his own tribesmen."

That shift could come about if rival Waziri militant groups isolate the Taliban's Mehsud group and seize control for themselves. Mehsud had notoriously clashed with Waziri commanders Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan, who, unlike Mehsud, have focused on mounting crossborder attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. When Mehsud assumed the leadership of the Pakistan Taliban in late 2007, Bahadur had been one of his closest rivals. "This will be an opportunity for the Wazir tribe to take back its position in the Taliban," says Rana.

A focus on Afghanistan may also suit another powerful commander in the region, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has influence with the Pakistani Taliban. As the head of the Haqqani network, the son of mujahedin leader Jalaluddin Haqqani has used his madrassas in Waziristan to mount vicious attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Similarly, Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, may intervene to back one of the men in contention. Aftab Sherpao, Pakistan's former Interior Minister, says Omar's support was crucial to Mehsud's ambitions when the Pakistani Taliban was formed.

A third option is for the Pakistani Taliban's leadership to pass to one of its leaders farther north in the tribal belt. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, who had been leading the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency, has been named as a possible, albeit unlikely, successor. Like Bahadur, he was a contender when Mehsud assumed the leadership of the group. In 2008, after his cohorts faced a steamrolling military offensive, he became the beneficiary of a peace deal with Islamabad.

But for the moment, the apparent death of Mehsud and the infighting among his loyalists has opened a small window of opportunity for Pakistan. "It has to be more proactive and not let the new leader establish himself," says Sherpao, the former Interior Minister. "The government will have to try and win over some of the tribes who were too afraid to challenge the militants." Over the weekend, elders from the Mehsud tribe announced they were prepared to fight the Taliban if they received government backing. That challenge, in the form of a local tribal militia, is already paying off against other Taliban militants to the north of the Swat valley. In Waziristan, it may succeed where previous military operations have failed.

PAKISTANS MOST WANTED MAN WANTED NO MORE...

Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who led a violent campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani government, was killed in a US missile strike and his body has been buried, three Pakistani intelligence officials said Friday.

But one of the three said no intelligence agent had actually seen Baitullah Mehsud's body.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said intelligence sources have confirmed Baitullah’s death.

A senior US intelligence official had earlier said there were strong indications that Mehsud was among those killed in Wednesday's attack, but he would not elaborate.

Mehsud had al-Qaeda connections and was suspected in the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan viewed him as its top internal threat and had been preparing an offensive against him.

For years, the US has considered Mehsud a lesser threat to its interests than some of the other Pakistani Taliban, their Afghan counterparts and al-Qaeda, because most of his attacks were focused inside Pakistan, not against US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

That view appeared to change in recent months as Mehsud's power grew and concerns mounted that increasing violence in Pakistan could destabilise the country and threaten the entire region.But while Mehsud's death would be a big blow to the Taliban in Pakistan, he has deputies who could take his place. Whether a new leader could wreak as much havoc as Mehsud depends largely on how much pressure the Pakistani military continues to put on the network, especially in the tribal area of South Waziristan.Intelligence officials said Mehsud was killed in a missile strike Wednesday on the home of his father-in-law and that his body was buried in the village of Nardusai in South Waziristan, not far from the site of the strike.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.One official said he had seen a classified intelligence report stating Mehsud was dead and buried, but that agents had not seen the body as the area was under Taliban control.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik earlier said he could confirm the death of Mehsud's wife but not of the Taliban leader himself, although information pointed in that direction.‘I can confirm to the extent that his wife is dead, and probably one of his brothers, but we do not have any...evidence that he's dead,’ Malik told reporters outside Parliament. But he added: ‘Yes, lot of information is pouring in from that area that he's dead, but I'm unable to confirm unless I have solid evidence.’

A security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said ‘about 70 per cent’ of the information pointed to Mehsud's being dead, but authorities had not yet been able to confirm this. He said authorities had not recovered a body.

Another senior Pakistani intelligence official said phone and other communications intercepts — he would not be more specific — had led authorities to suspect Mehsud was dead, but he also stressed there was no definitive evidence yet.

An American counterterrorism official said the US government was also looking into the reports. The official indicated the United States did not yet have physical evidence — remains — that would prove who died. But he said there are other ways of determining who was killed in the strike. He declined to describe them.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter publicly.

A local tribesman, who also spoke on condition his name not be used, said Mehsud had been at his father-in-law's house being treated for kidney pain, and had been put on a drip by a doctor, when the missile struck. The tribesman claimed he attended the Taliban chief's funeral.

Last year, a doctor for Mehsud announced the militant leader had died of kidney failure, but the reports turned out to be false.In March, the State Department authorized a reward of up to $5 million for the militant chief. And increasingly, American missiles fired by unmanned drones have focused on Mehsud-related targets.

US strike kills Baitullah wife and father-in-law

The wife and father-in-law of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban have reportedly been killed in an air raid in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region.

A missile, suspected to have been fired from a US drone, reportedly hit the home of Akramud Din, the father-in-law of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban, early on Wednesday.


“I confirm that the female that was killed in the strike was the wife of Baitullah Mehsud,” a relative told the reposters.

Two missiles were fired, according to a senior government official in South Waziristan. Mehsud’s whereabouts were not known at the time of the attack.
Pakistan’s military has repeatedly targeted Mehsud in recent months, saying it is preparing to launch an offensive against his fighters in the tribal region close to the border with Afghanistan
The US has also apparently carried out a number of missile attacks in North and South Waziristan, which officials say have killed a number of Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives
Washington does not confirm such attacks, but the US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the only people operating the unmanned aircraft in the region.

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• Taliban leader's wife killed in missile attack (ctv.ca)