Commander: Pakistan offensive may be sapping weapons, money from insurgents in Afghanistan

September 16th, 2009 Pakistan makes another arrest in Swat ValleyISLAMABAD — Pakistan killed 10 insurgents and arrested a militant commander accused of beheading troops in the northwestern Swat Valley, notching up more successes in an offensive that has been welcomed at home and in the U.S., an army spokesman said Thursday. Sher Muhammad Qasab was captured this week at an undisclosed location in the valley, said Col.

September 1st, 2009 Pakistan forces kill 40 militants in Khyber raidsPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Government forces destroyed four militant bases and killed 40 insurgents Tuesday in a new offensive near Pakistan's famed Khyber Pass, the main route for supplies to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, authorities said.

July 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Raising questions over the success of the Swat military offensive, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke has said it is unclear whether the Taliban has really been hit hard in the operation. Talking to media persons after returning from his visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan here, Holbrooke said Washington is yet to ascertain whether scores of Taliban insurgents are actually being killed, as claimed by the Pakistan Army, or have they just scattered away only to recoil later.

July 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least 31 militants were killed and 28 others, including a Taliban commander, were arrested in separate operations in northwestern Pakistan, according to a media report Monday. According to the Pakistan Army's Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR), 11 militants were killed and 28 others, including the wanted commander identified as Kabir, were arrested during a search operation in Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Geo TV reported.

July 21st, 2009 US diplomat to hold talks in Pakistan, AfghanistanWASHINGTON — The Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan is traveling to those countries this week for talks. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that Richard Holbrooke will be in Islamabad from Tuesday through Thursday.

July 8th, 2009 6 Afghan cops killed in AfghanistanKABUL — Insurgents attacked police posts and a government building in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a clash that killed six policemen and 21 insurgents, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. The clash started Tuesday in Barghe Matal district of Nuristan province and was continuing on Wednesday, spokesman Zemerai Bashary said.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States is hoping to get support from the Pakistan Army in its offensive in Afghanistan, but the hostility between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not allowing the US-led allied forces to carry out an all out offensive in the region and is impeding their success, The Washington Post reports. The U.S. troops are struggling to overcome decades of enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the rough terrains of the border area, the report said.

June 23rd, 2009 Gates asks Gulf leaders for more Afghanistan helpWASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged military leaders from the Persian Gulf region to help with security and development of Afghanistan, saying there is only a "fleeting opportunity" now to turn the stalemated war around. Speaking at a conference in downtown Washington, Gates called the ongoing Pakistan military offensive against insurgents "an encouraging first step" by a government that had long tilted the readiness of its armed forces toward a possible conflict with nuclear neighbor India.

June 21st, 2009 PESHAWAR - As the Pakistan Army intensified its offensive against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, some highly placed sources have revealed that the warlord along with his top commander, Maulana Fazalullah, has shifted base to Mirali region of North Waziristan. According to sources, Mehsud and Fazalullah both were hiding in South Waziristan, but sneaked into North Waziristan soon after the government announced an all out operation against them.

June 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's Advisor on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik has said that military offensive in Malakand and Swat Valley would continue until the last terrorist is eliminated from the region by the security forces. Speaking at a police prize distribution ceremony here, Malik claimed that militants operating in the Pakistan were being funded with arms and money from Afghanistan.

May 9th, 2009 Obama: Pakistan, Afghanistan fighting terroristsWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan are cooperating in the effort to defeat al-Qaida and its terrorist allies. The president met Wednesday at the White House with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari.

April 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US government has urged India to support Pakistan in its war against Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents along the Afghan border, a media report said Tuesday. 'I think it will be important for India to make clear that as Pakistan takes steps to deal with extremists on its own territory, India will be supportive,' the Press TV quoted Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg as saying Monday.

April 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama Thursday asked Congress to authorise $83.4 billion in additional funding for the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, he said that nearly 95 percent of the military request for the current fiscal year, which ends Sep 30, would go toward military operations in either Iraq or the conflict in Afghanistan, which has increasingly spilled into neighbouring Pakistan.

April 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser Jim Jones is confident the new US Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy would be successful in removing terrorist safe havens in the two countries. 'It's extremely important that for us to be successful that we remove that safe haven of operation that insurgents have been able to navigate in, and I 'm quite sure that with our plan right now that we'll get there,' he said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on National Public Radio (NPR).

March 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The new United States strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan would revolve around reconciliation with militants operating in tribal areas, because the US regards that at least seventy per cent insurgents in the region are reconcilable. Dawn sources claimed that the Commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus and special envoy Richard Holbrooke, met on Friday at Capitol Hill, and spent two hours explaining salient features of the new strategy to lawmakers.