Two of the soldiers appearing in a shocking video showing Marines urinating on corpses of the Taliban militants have been identified, even as top United States officials, including the White House, strongly deplored the incident.
The Barack Obama administration is facing a dilemma with respect to Pakistan as unlike Afghanistan, it cannot send its troops there to fight Al Qaeda and Taliban and needs to find other means, top United States Special Envoy for the region Richard Holbrooke has said. "The dilemma is that the leadership of both the Al Qaeda and the Taliban are in a neighbouring country (of Afghanistan) where our troops cannot fight. And therefore we have to find other means," he said.
Swearing allegiance to Taliban and al Qaeda, chanting anti-Modi slogans outside a court, and operating without the support of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence are indications that the banned Students Islamic Movement of India is seeking the attention of global terrorist groups and wants to be the face of India's home-grown terror. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Sixteen militants were killed in two United States drone strikes within last 24 hours in Pakistan's restive tribal region, ending a five-month hiatus.
'He could indeed survive [the no confidence vote] even as he faces his biggest political test.'
'I think the most important force in Pakistan is the army. We would like democracy to succeed and flourish in Pakistan. But we have to recognise that the power today rests virtually with the army,' PM Dr Singh says in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria
The United States has announced a bounty of $30 million for information leading to the location of five key leaders of the Haqqani militant network, held responsible for several attacks on civilians and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The United States Senate has approved the Department of Defence Authorization bill according to which the US military assistance to Pakistan can be used only for its fight against the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Days after the United States Senate approved a $1.5 billion package for Pakistan, including $400 million in military assistance, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told The Financial Times that his government has put Punjab and Sindh on high alert to avert the possibility that Taliban terrorists, fleeing the military offensive in the Swat valley and Waziristan, may seek refuge in these areas.
The United States of America sought Pakistan's help in 1998 to prevent Osama bin Laden from launching an Al Qaeda attack against it, with then President Bill Clinton asking Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to personally use his influence to prevail over the Taliban in averting the imminent strike.
Pakistan will not collapse immediately and the Taliban will not take over the trouble-torn country, an analysis by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has predicted.The analysis differs with the views expressed by many experts and the United States media, which has often predicted the imminent collapse of the nation.The analysis further assures that terrorists will not seize control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons and Shariah will not be imposed across the nation.
A United States general was killed in an attack at a British-run army training centre in Kabul on Tuesday -- the highest-ranking American casualty since the 9/11 attacks.
Amid growing global concerns over Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling in the hands of the Taliban, the top United States military official on Monday said it remains a "strategic concern" but the atomic arsenal of Islamabad are secure as of now.
Pakistani Hindu and Sikh families, who have been targetted by Taliban for failing to pay 'religious' tax, left their homes and moved to Punjab province to take shelter as the government in Islamabad on Saturday dismissed India's "verbal demarche" on the issue.
The Pak PM said he told the UN that it was its resolution on Kashmir and not that of Pakistan therefore it was the body's duty to implement it.
US Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Pakistan addressed the issue of terrorism and also called on both - India and Pakistan to find a diplomatic solution to the violence at the border issue.
Tired of the alleged "double game" being played by Islamabad, American lawmakers have announced to hold a Congressional hearing next week to discuss whether Pakistan is a "friend or foe" of the US in the war on terror.
"The FATF plenary decided continuation of Pakistan in 'Grey List' till its next meeting to be held in October," an official privy to the development told PTI.
Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations.
Close on the heels of the Barack Obama administration approving reconciliation efforts with the moderate elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States has categorically ruled out any similar settlement with the al Qaeda. "We have no interest in any kind of reconciliation or any rapprochement by anyone with al Qaeda," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "Only the Taliban, we never said al Qaeda," she said.
In the last year since the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed on July 7, allegedly by the Sirajuddin Haqqani faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, India has well and truly joined in United States president Barack Obama's 'AfPak strategy' that is aimed at jointly looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan as the expanded theatre of war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
A top Obama aide on Sunday said the Al Qaeda is based in Pakistan and that the United States would 'not rush' in finalising the new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"we're talking about Kashmir and the relation to what's going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping," the President said.
The US wants action against the existing safe havens of the Taliban and the Haqqani network and demolish its ability to carry out strikes across the border in Afghanistan.
Shamsi airfield, in the Baluchistan region in southern Pakistan, has become the new ground zero in the United States war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.The Times, London, reports that the Central Intelligence Agency is covertly using the Shamsi airfield, located just 30 miles from the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to launch Predator strikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda bases on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan -- a fact repeatedly denied by US and Pak
B Raman on the situation in Pakistan after the death of Baitullah.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday cancelled his upcoming visit to the United States where he was scheduled to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.
The declared agenda of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council is to oust the United States from the region, break Pak-US ties, back Taliban militants, force the government to revoke the Most Favoured Nation status being granted to India and stop the NATO supplies pass through Pakistan. But that's not going to benefit Pakistan, writes Amir Mir
"I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and fathers fleeing violence and war," the 19-year-old Pakistani education activist, who survived a near-fatal attack by the Taliban, said in a Facebook post.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' remarks came days after a group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists struck the Sunjuwan Military Camp in Jammu on Saturday, killing seven people including six soldiers.
'India could help in Afghanistan, but if it does too much, it will stoke Pakistan's paranoia and risk making the situation worse,' Michael O'Hanlon, one of America's leading experts on international security, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
Pakistan is once again becoming a frontline State in big-power rivalry. But this time around, Pakistan stands to gain out of its geography, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The brutal Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan assault has claimed 141 lives, including 132 school children, six terrorists and three armymen.
Contradicting Asif's claim, the office of the Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar issued a statement saying there was no mention or reference of India or an Indian citizen during his meeting with the Pakistani foreign minister on September 21 in New York.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has said that the United States should finish the fight against terror outfits Al Qaida and Taliban instead of sending troops to Iraq."We should finish the fight against Al Qaida and Taliban instead of going into Iraq. We need to take more resources and put them in Afghan - at least two additional combat brigades and US$ 1 billion in non-military assistance each year," Obama said.
It currently has between 140 and 150 nuclear weapons in its control and stockpiled around 200 to 300 kilogram of plutonium.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins, who was in New Delhi on Thursday said in an interaction with the press that improvement in Indo-Pak ties will automatically improve the situation in Afghanistan, even as he discussed the current state of play in US-Afghan relations and attempts to work towards reconciliation with top officials.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal wanted to fight North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan as an 18-year-old when the US launched its campaign against Taliban following the 9/11 attacks, investigators have said.
The US defence secretary's visit comes ahead of the visit by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
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