There have been uncorroborated rumours since Saturday afternoon, claiming that Ilyas Kashmiri, the head of the 313 Brigade, an affiliate of the Al Qaeda, was killed in a drone strike by the United States in South Waziristan on Friday night.
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has reportedly been killed in Pakistan, an Afghanistan private television channel has reported.
Amid a dramatic increase in drone attacks on militants in the Waziristan tribal region, CIA chief Leon Panetta arrived here today for talks with Pakistan's civil and military leadership.
Terrorists targetted a police van with a roadside bomb in northwest Pakistan's restive Bannu region on Thursday, killing at least two security personnel and injuring five others, a day after a suicide attack on a police station in the same area claimed 20 lives.
After intense pressure from the United States, Pakistan has reportedly agreed to launch a full-scale offensive against the Taliban and other extremist organisations in their stronghold North Waziristan, but has also clarified to the Obama administration that the timing of the military offensive would be decided by it.
The United States has reportedly rejected Pakistan's fresh demands of handing over unmanned drone technology to it, highly placed sources in the Pakistan military have revealed, adding that Washington's refusal could result in Islamabad further delaying its decision to launch a new war front against militants in North Waziristan.
The Pentagon leadership has strongly denied reports that it has pressurised Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to extend the military's anti-Taliban operations into North Waziristan, in the wake of the botched Times Square bombing attempt by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, who received terror training in that region.
A key Taliban commander has been arrested in connection with the violence in this Pakistani port city that has been hit by gang warfare since the last two years.
Al Qaeda has made jihadi commander Ilyas Kashmiri as its chief military strategist for the region to plan and spearhead terrorist attacks against the West.
A top Taliban commander has threatened to carry out attacks on nine more key installations in Pakistan similar to the strike on Mehran Naval Base in Karachi to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha, during his meeting with Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta, has reportedly presented evidence regarding India's hand in fanning terrorism in Balochistan and Waziristan.
"The creation of the cells is aimed at coordinating the banned group's activities in the area ranging from the southern port city of Karachi to Waziristan in the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan," the Express Tribune newspaper quoted its sources in Kohat, Hangu, Peshawar and Lahore as saying.
Media reports also cited the US aid restrictions over the F-16 fighter jets deal between the two countries.
Annoyed over the case of its arrested national Raymond Davis, the United States has once again resumed drone strikes in the tribal belt of Pakistan.
A former leading Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence officer, who claimed to have been a mentor of Taliban, has been killed almost a year after he was kidnapped by militants in the Waziristan tribal region.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has appointed a new spokesperson, who will work as deputy to main Taliban spokesperson Azam Tariq.
In a major setback to Taliban, missiles fired from US drones have killed its top commander and group's deputy chief Qari Hussain Mehsud, mastermind of many suicide attacks across Pakistan, sources claimed on Friday.
A top commander of Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent and three of his associates were killed on Friday in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.
Pakistan has agreed in principle to launch a full-fledged military operation against Taliban militants in North Waziristan. But it will be a tough task for the country's army, as the terrain is believed to be the stronghold of numerous Arab, central Asian, Pashtun and Punjabi militants.The military operation may increase the flow of US aid to Pakistan, but the consequences might be unaffordable for the beleaguered country.
The United States said it expected full cooperation from Pakistan in its investigations related to the Times Square bomb case, in which prime suspect Faisal Shahzad has told federal authorities that he received bomb-making training in Waziristan.
At least 38 people, including a former parliamentarian, were killed and nearly 50 others injured in a suicide attack on a mosque and two bombings across northwest Pakistan on Monday, marking a spurt in militant violence after a relative lull over the past few weeks.
At least eight persons, including three Haqqani network commanders, were killed on Thursday in a rare United States drone strike outside Pakistan's tribal belt, just a day after a top official said the US had agreed to halt such attacks during negotiations with militants.
Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani escaped an attempt on his life when Taliban militants fired rockets at an area in South Waziristan tribal agency shortly after his visit to the troubled region.
Senior Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz leader Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday claimed there was 'concrete' proof of India's alleged involvement in fomenting unrest in Pakistan's Balochistan province and tribal areas. Sharif, the brother of former premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, claimed India is involved in disrupting peace in tribal regions like Balochistan and Waziristan. "There is concrete information that India has a dirty role in destabilising Balochistan," he said.
The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to contaminate water sources and reservoirs with poisonous materials to pressure the army to stop military operations against them in South Waziristan tribal region. The cantonment boards of Rawalpindi and Chaklala, located near the federal capital, received the threat from the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
In yet another show of its 'barbaric' justice, the Taliban blew up two alleged United States spies in a village near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan.
Pakistan will soon discuss the issue of India's alleged involvement in terror activities inside its geographical boundaries with New Delhi, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit has said.Reiterating that the security forces have recovered Indian arms and ammunitions during search operations in South Waziristan, where the military is engaged in an intense battle with the Taliban, Basit blamed India for not taking Islamabad's commitments against terrorism seriously.
The Pakistan Army distanced itself from media reports that its chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had arranged a secret meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the leader of the Haqqani militant network based in North Waziristan.
Pakistani troops entered Kotkai, the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud and his close aide Qari Hussain, also known as trainer of suicide bombers, late on Saturday night after subjecting the village to heavy bombing by fighters and attack helicopters. In the intense battle, 13 militants and two soldiers were killed.
The Pakistan military believes that American and British military will withdraw from Afghanistan -- and when they do, they will need old Taliban friends such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin to minimise the influence of India in its Afghan backyard.Although Pakistan's military chiefs have been talking about an 'imminent' assault since last June, all the evidence has pointed to deep reluctance to launch a massive ground offensive.
NATO on Sunday resumed supplies for its forces in Afghanistan after Pakistan reopened the main supply line, which it had closed to protest the death of its two soldiers in a cross-border raid, even as United States drones killed 7 militants in North Waziristan tribal area in a fresh attack.
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, an Al Qaeda operative of Libyan origin, died in a missile strike on Thursday, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's Shura (the supreme council) has decided that Hakimullah Mehsud will not directly meet the media as it would help spy agencies locate him.
Two soldiers were killed and as many injured when their vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled bomb by suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region on Sunday. The soldiers were attacked in a mountainous area when they were heading to a check post after fetching drinking water. Initial reports had said the vehicle had hit a landmine. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
One of the two terrorists arrested during audacious terror strikes on two mosques of the minority Ahmedi sect in Lahore has told investigators that the attackers had received training in the lawless Waziristan tribal belt and were working at the behest of the Pakistani Taliban's Punjabi wing.
Stepping up a campaign against the group, 10 to 12 drones carried out a wave of pre-dawn attacks on Dargah Mandi and Danday Darpa Khel near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency, officials and witnesses were quoted as saying by TV news channels.
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.
'Anybody can claim anything,' Pakistan army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas said. 'I do not think the Pakistani Taliban has the capacity to carry out attacks overseas because the army has destroyed their facilities.'
Refusing to release the abducted journalist Mohammad Rashid, who is associated with the Associated Press, the North Waziristan Taliban has said that Rashid is being interrogated to ascertain his motives behind coming to Miramshah.
A hitherto unheard of militant group called the Asian Tigers on Monday issued a video of two top former ISI officials and a journalist whom it claimed to have kidnapped in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt.
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