The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has admitted that the killing of eight schoolboys in a night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence. "Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack. We don't now believe that we busted a major ring," The Times quoted NATO sources as saying.Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.
The US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces are all set to roll out an "intensive 18-month" ground campaign in Afghanistan to stamp out Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, top US generals have said warning the insurgents that Marjah offensive was just the start.
I was flogged about 500 in 3 days, they cut my back with blades and removed nails from my hands and feet," said Shahbaz Taseer of the ordeal he endured.
Describing Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province area as the "fountainhead" of terror activities in the region, India on Thursday said use of terrorism as state policy with deep roots in military establishment there is a major obstacle for peaceful bilateral ties.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated this after a meeting with visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who sought deepening cooperation and developing political dialogue between Pakistan and the European military alliance to achieve common strategic objectives. Any 'activation on the eastern border' would affect Pakistan's involvement in the war on terror, Qureshi told a joint press conference after their talks.
Karzai has steadfastly opposed direct talks between the US and the Taliban, wanting Afghan ownership of the "reconciliation process", as the reintegration of the Taliban into the mainstream is referred to.
United States President Barack Obama is sending a team of officials led by Richard Holbrooke, his special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, to visit refugee camps housing lakhs of people who have been displaced by the military offensive in Swat and adjoining areas of the North Western Frontier Province. Holbrooke is expected to have a first hand assessment of the situation and then recommend how best the US can accelerate relief measures.
A gritty India survived waves of attacks from Qatar to hold the reigning Asian champions to a goalless draw to steal an unexpected point from their away match of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
About 100 vehicles destined for the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan were set ablaze on Monday by heavily armed pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, in the second such attack in as many days.
India qualified as one of the six best second-placed teams from the group matches of qualifying round. All the matches of each of the 10 groups were played in a single venue.
Gilgit Baltistan's large frontage with Kashmir and Ladakh across Kargil and the Siachen Glacier gives Pakistan and China the perceived scope for conduct of collusive operations against India and wrest control of the major course of the Indus and Shyok, observes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
The White House said the two leaders also pledged to continue working together to enhance security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
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.
The Pakistani Taliban on Monday warned all international organisations and individuals to leave the country or face violence as it was in a "state of war". Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that Pakistan had buried the desire of its people for peace in the North Waziristan tribal region and launched a military operation to make its western backers happy.
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.
Here are some of the other events -- in pictures -- that made news last week.
Why omit the Tiananmen massacre from the history of China's Communist party, asks Claude Arpi.
A key Pakistani Taliban commander involved in an assassination attempt on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been arrested in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, sources said on Wednesday.
They warned that the 'prime minister and his cabinet colleagues will be stopped from entering the state' if their interests were harmed.
The New York Times reported that Pakistan was moving 6,000 troops (more than a brigade) to fight militants on its western border with Afghanistan, quoting a Pakistani official who did not want to be identified. The Pakistan military, advancing on three fronts backed by fighter aircraft and attack helicopters in Buner, snatched the vital 8-km-long Ambela heights which overlook most of Buner.
He will call for 'an end to the politics of resistance and retribution', a senior aide said.
Security expert B Raman writes on the alarming rise of Taliban in Pakistan.
Pakistan will attack al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden the moment it has reliable intelligence information about his whereabouts, Pakistan's envoy to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Friday.Haqqani also said he was confident that Pakistan could help foil any al Qaeda plans to attack the United States, although he did not know of any right now. The envoy is pressing for more cooperation with the United States on intelligence.
Sushma in her address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers meeting said that terrorism is an enemy of basic human rights.
A report, titled 'Threat to VVIPs, politicians, foreign missions and military installations', said terrorists could carry out suicide attacks disguised as women or as military or police personnel.
Two missiles were fired at a house in the Khushali Torikhel area near Mir Ali town at around midnight, TV channels reported. Among the five persons who died were foreign militants, the reports said.
The next big destination for IS in South Asia could be India. In India, the SIMI-IM network can provide the logistics for an IS staging area, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The US needs to do three things to help the newly elected Nawaz Sharif government in Pakistan, says Stanley A Weiss
Driven from its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is down but not out. Where once they confronted armies, the extremist Islamist group's adherents have now staged hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks. In some cases, the group has claimed responsibility for atrocities, including the bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people. Its involvement is not always proven, but even if the link is ideological rather than operational, Islamic State still poses a security threat in many countries.
Trump's trip to Brussels would be his first overseas visit after he was sworn-in.
The United States has issued a global travel alert and ordered its embassies throughout the Muslim world to close down temporarily, amid fears of an Al Qaeda terror strike, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.
Indian law-enforcement agencies are seizing an ever-increasing quantity of heroin from the Indo-Pak border indicating a rise in trafficking of contraband from its neighbouring nations through the country, a report said. According to the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board released on Wednesday, the quantity of heroin entering India from Pakistan and Afghanistan has increased in the year 2007 than the previous years.
Dawood Ibrahim is wanted in India to face the law of the land for carrying out serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993 in which scores of people were killed and injured.
The Pakistan Army on Sunday launched a fresh drive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Swat region amidst indications that the security forces would adopt a tougher approach against the ultras in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
London Olympics bronze-medallist MC Mary Kom led the charge as six Indian boxers stormed into the final with comprehensive wins to remain in hunt for all the 10 medals on offer at the 12th South Asian Games, in Shillong, on Sunday.
'In my tenure as a military chief and president of the country, we were succeeding. We were able to bring India to the negotiating table,' he said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to people to maintain peace and calm and urged the protesters to refrain from taking law into own hands.
'If someone is trying to do a vote bank politics under the garb of the CAB then it is not in the interest of the country'
'In a war of guerrilla resistance from 1682 to 1707, the Marathas destroyed the foundations of the Mughal empire.' 'Shivaji was dead, but his example and ideals survived and were the main source for inspiration for the Marathas in their desperate struggle with the mighty Mughal empire,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), the well known military historian.
Sharif met US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York during which he raised the Kashmir issue.
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