The Afghan Taliban have claimed that they killed three persons, including two Indians, and injured seven Afghan soldiers in a missile attack on a United States airbase and an Indian non-governmental organisation's office in eastern Kunar province.The claim was made by Afghan Taliban spokesman Qari Omar Haqqani, who spoke to reporters in Khar in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the phone on Sunday. Haqqani claimed the militants attacked the office of the Indian NGO.
As many as 10 Taliban fighters, dressed in Afghan army uniforms and driving military vehicles, talked their way onto the base and opened fire on soldiers.
Although the United States have denied confirmation, but it's apparent that Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a recent US drone attack in South Waziristan, Pakistan. Mehsud's death signifies tremendous implications, and was possibly a result of intelligence penetration. Explains security expert B Raman
Harry, 23 a Household Cavalry Officer, has spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in war-ravaged Helmand Province. The deployment had been cloaked in secrecy under a news blackout deal, agreed across the United Kingdom media to prevent details reaching the Taliban and endangering Harry and his comrades' lives. But the arrangement broke down after news was leaked out on the US website, the Drudge Report.
Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had expressed doubts about a claim by the regime of his former boss Pervez Musharraf that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban, a United Nations investigator has said.
"Absolutely untrue", State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, when asked there was a feeling inside Pakistan that they are being sidelined in these talks with Taliban.
Pakistan has informed the United States that it is ready to facilitate its peace talks with Taliban, but it must not be blamed in case of failure, as it does not spoon-feed the militant group, a media report said on Sunday.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud received splinter injuries to his head and back in an American missile strike in Pakistan's lawless Waziristan tribal region that killed at least 15 militants, according to intelligence officials.Mehsud, who became the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief after the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August last year, was injured in Thursday's United States' missile strike at Basalkot in Shaktoi area.
Officials said the militants targeted residential areas and held hostages.
Pakistan on Friday dismissed reports claiming Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar had fled from Quetta to Karachi, with the help of the Inter Services Intelligence, to avoid the possibility of being targeted by United States drones."This is ridiculous to say the least," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters. He said there had been speculations about Omar's presence in Pakistan 'for years'.
The United States might have eliminated some top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, but it is struggling to cut off their increasingly diversified terror funding, which continues to keep the insurgency's coffers brimming with cash.A report in The New York Times on Monday said the Taliban in Afghanistan have expanded their revenue generation mechanism from traditional illicit drug trade to kidnappings, extortion and foreign donations, which America is struggling to cut off.
The impoverished tribesmen in Pakistan's lawless areas have borne the brunt of the government's attempts to combat militancy, says Tahir Ali
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Saturday issued a new audio recording saying he was alive and well, dismissing reports that he was killed in a United States' drone attack in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The recording was provided by the Taliban to the media in northwest Pakistan a day after another audio message -- in which Mehsud said he was alive but did not mention Thursday's drone strike in Waziristan tribal region -- triggered reports of his death.
United States aid worth one billion dollars has wound up in the hands of the Taliban and other insurgency groups, according to war analysts and government auditors
In an unusual step, the Afghan Taliban on Tuesday batted for Pakistan over the issue of Inter-Services Intelligence-backed terror strikes in Afghanistan, claiming that the United States "wants to spread chaos in Pakistan" and weaken its government.
Ties between Pakistan's ISI and Taliban remain troubling for the United States and this relationship should be "fixed", a top US senator has said.
The United States embassy in Pakistan has warned about a possible terrorist attack against American citizens at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and prohibited American staff from visiting the five-star facility, an official statement said.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
With the Afghanistan government in Kabul approaching Islamabad for help in opening "reconciliation" talks with the Taliban, a Pakistani role in shaping the political landscape in Afghanistan is now an uncomfortable likelihood for New Delhi.
The United States and its allies are offering cash and jobs to Taliban fighters as part of a stepped up negotiation with representatives of Mullah Omar and other insurgents to persuade them to lay down their arms, a news report said on Thursday.
The United States has asked Taliban to put down arms and begin peace talks as it condemned the suicide attack on a popular Kabul restaurant that killed 21 people, including several foreign nationals.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Friday claimed the Taliban's decision to hold talks under Pakistan's Constitution has exposed the lobby that was deliberately maligning him with labels such as "Taliban Khan".
Having flown on deadly sorties during his five-month deployment, British Royal Prince Harry has confirmed that he killed Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, taking them "out of the game", much like other soldiers fighting with him.The 28-year-old, known as Captain Wales in the Army, is returning to the United Kingdom after his second deployment to the war-torn country.
Top Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Wali Ur Rehman, in a rare video appearance, has pledged to send fighters to Kashmir and wage a struggle for the implementation of Sharia rule in India. The United States had earlier announced a $5 million reward against Wali Ur Rehman for his involvement in the murder of seven Central Intelligence Agency officials in Afghanistan in December 2009.
Claiming that 'thousands of our well-armed militants are ready to fight alongside the army if any war is imposed on Pakistan', chief of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, told The News daily by phone from an undisclosed location. Hundreds of would-be bombers had been 'given suicide jackets and explosive-laden vehicles for protection of the border in case of any aggression by the Indian forces', he said.
While terming Imran Khan's rally to South Waziristan "a mere drama", the Taliban has warned Tehrik-e-Insaaf Pakistan not to go ahead with the rally or face music.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has cautioned the United States against any peace talks with the Taliban arguing the terrorist outfit is unlikely to change its behaviour and as reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise.
While United States President Barack Obama on the occasion of Osama Bin Ladin's first anniversary arrived in Kabul to assess the security situation of the country, the Afghan Taliban has announced a fresh spring offensive throughout the country from Thursday. Tahir Ali reports
In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country's ISI together created the Taliban.
Reacting to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani's invitation for a dialogue, the Pakistani Taliban have said they are prepared to hold talks with the new government provided it 'severed diplomatic relations with the United States' and enforced Sharia in tribal areas. The Taliban leaders said the militants were ready for talks with the government, and their men are observing a ceasefire with the government but would not surrender their weapons.
Hardening its stance, the Pakistani Taliban have announced the boycott of negotiations on Friday with the North West Frontier Province government unless it releases all its detained members under a deal signed last month.
The Afghan Taliban have provided Pakistan the "functional blueprint" of their formal talks with United States officials in Qatar, probably the first time that the militants have shared details of their parleys with American negotiators.
An operational head of the Tehreek-e -Taliban Pakistan, who is on the most wanted list of terrorists in the country, was captured from the outskirts of Karacghi, police said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off from other arrested TTP men, police arrested Irfan Khan from his hideout in Sohrab Goth near Karachi.
India has been discomfited by signs that the United States and its allies are preparing to leave Afghanistan.
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The Barack Obama administration's top diplomat for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has admitted that the United States is getting battered by the Taliban in the information war in the Federally Administered Tribal Area and the Northwest Frontier Province in Pakistan. He warned that the 'success' in the US-led assault on these militant groups would ring hollow if there is no propaganda victory against these extremists."We are losing that war," he said.
New Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced on Monday and vowed to strike United States and Pakistani interests -- to avenge the killing of his slain leader Baitullah Mehsud and American drone attacks on the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His appearance in front of a select group of reporters in the South Waziristan tribal area ended speculation over his reported death in a contest for leadership of the Pakistan Taliban, sparked by Baitullah's killing.
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