Pakistan militants

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Taliban Takes Hostages After Bold Pakistan Attack

Move follows assault on military headquarters

(Newser) - Militants were holding several security officers hostage inside an intelligence wing of Pakistan's army headquarters today after staging an audacious assault on the nation's most powerful institution. At least four militants have between 10 and 15 hostages, says a military spokesman. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack in...

Officials: Taliban's Mehsud Is Dead

(Newser) - Pakistani officials have confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, in an American drone strike early Wednesday. While there is still no concrete evidence of his death, the country's foreign minister said today that "he has been taken out." One security official told the New ...

Pakistan Says It's Close to Swat Victory

(Newser) - Pakistan’s defense secretary says the army will crush Taliban militants in the Swat Valley within days, the BBC reports. Just "5% to 10% of the job" is left, Syed Athar Ali told an Asian forum, though an army spokesman declined to give an actual timeline. Meanwhile, 40 rebels...

Pakistan: 1000 Taliban Dead in Swat Offensive

Move could signal a shift to bloody urban battles

(Newser) - Pakistani security forces fought Taliban militants in the northwest's Swat Valley and entered two Taliban-held towns there, the army said today, foreshadowing what could become bloody urban battles. A top government official said the offensive had already killed more than 1000 Taliban fighters, while a group of pro-government religious leaders...

Pakistan PM Claims 700 Taliban Killed

Army has already killed 700 militants: minister

(Newser) - With more than a million of its citizens fleeing violence within its borders, Pakistan's prime minister said today the army has killed more than 700 militants in the last two weeks, in an operation in which "the very existence of the country was at stake.” Syed Yousaf Raza...

Stakes Massive Ahead of Obama Af-Pak Summit

Zardari, Karzai in DC as Taliban surge in crumbling Pakistan

(Newser) - Barack Obama begins two days of talks with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan today as his administration faces what may be its first foreign policy crisis: rising militancy in the Swat Valley that threatens to spread across the nuclear-armed nation. Obama and his team are expected to pressure Asif...

Pakistanis Flee Swat Ahead of Taliban Clash

Militants take control of main city in strategic valley

(Newser) - Pakistani authorities have warned residents of the country's troubled Swat Valley to leave their homes ahead of an expected military operation in the Taliban-controlled area. The February peace deal between Pakistan and the Taliban, which included the introduction of Sharia law, has effectively collapsed, reports Reuters. Militants have infiltrated several...

Islamic Schools Fill Pakistani Gaps—and Breed Militants

(Newser) - Pakistan’s education system is so dysfunctional that for many rural children, Islamic schools are the only option, the New York Times reports. The growth of madrasas, which teach little besides Koran memorization, is especially pronounced in places like southern Punjab, home to half of the country's at least 12,...

US Worries Grow Over Weakened Pakistan's Nukes

But Pakistani officials call concerns 'overblown rhetoric'

(Newser) - The growing insurgency in Pakistan has heightened US worries about the security of the country’s nuclear arsenal, the New York Times reports. Some fear militants could steal weapons in transport or get access to nuclear facilities. President Obama says he’s “confident” that the stock is “secure,...

US Reaches Out to Pakistani Opposition

Administration presses bitter rivals to unite against Taliban threat

(Newser) - The Obama administration is seeking closer ties with the Pakistani president's biggest—and most bitter—rival, the New York Times reports. The US previously shunned Nawaz Sharif because of his links to Islamists, but diplomats now believe Sharif's popularity among that group could help bolster Asif Ali Zardari's embattled government...

Pakistan Launches Strikes Against Taliban

Militant presence in Buner violates peace agreement, says military

(Newser) - Pakistan has deployed troops and begun airstrikes against suspected Taliban sites in the Buner district, uncomfortably close to the capital. A military spokesman said some 500 militants are in the district, just over 60 miles from Islamabad, violating a peace agreement, the BBC reports. Meanwhile, tens of thousands have fled...

US Missiles Kill 8 Militants in Pakistan

Islamabad complains that drone strikes help Taliban

(Newser) - An American drone attack today killed at least eight militants in a Pakistani tribal area, Reuters reports. "There are 'guests' among the dead," an anonymous intelligence official says, referring to non-Pakistani militants. The missile assault struck either a house or a bunker in South Waziristan, a Pakistani Taliban...

Mumbai Thugs Aimed to Squeeze Press With Hostages

Gunman reveals how plans to force media demands went awry

(Newser) - Mumbai terrorists originally planned to take hostages and use them to make demands of the media, a captured gunmen has revealed. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and his partner, responsible for a massacre at the train station, intended to take hostages to a rooftop, but couldn't find a suitable building, reports AP....

Pakistan Feared Indian Air Strikes

India was preparing to hits areas identified as militant camps, says official

(Newser) - Pakistan feared a retaliatory attack by India after the Mumbai terrorist siege, a Pakistani official told the BBC. Evidence indicated that India was planning an air raid on suspected militant training camps, he said. Despite worries that India planned "to teach Pakistan a lesson, we wouldn't have gone—and...

Pakistani Vigilantes Strike at Taliban

Desperate police encourage citizens to take actions

(Newser) - As Pakistan’s overtaxed military and police forces wage a desperate battle against the Taliban, vigilantes are striking back at the militants on their own, the New York Times reports. Last August, citizens in a quiet farming valley hunted down and killed the Taliban fighters who murdered six policemen, lining...

Red Cross: Pakistan Now a War Zone

Tribal areas become war zone as government steps up assault on militants

(Newser) - Pakistan's escalating confrontation with the Taliban has plunged the country into full-scale war, the New York Times reports. A quarter of a million people have fled the fighting as the Pakistani army attacks the militants in tribal areas on at least three fronts, and 20,000 have flooded in desperation...

Pakistani Troops Fire on US Helicopters

US forced back across border to Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pakistani troops fired on two US helicopters crossing the border apparently to attack militants last night and drove them back into Afghanistan, Reuters reports. The aircraft crossed the border in the restive North Waziristan tribal region, according to Pakistani sources. US officials refused to confirm the report. Pakistani officials have...

Strike Kills at Least 9 in Pakistan Militant Stronghold

US missiles thought to have hit both terrorists and children

(Newser) - Explosions reportedly caused by missiles fired from drone aircraft hit a house and seminary linked to a key Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least nine people, officials and witnesses said. The blasts took place in a militant stronghold in Pakistan's wild tribal belt, a possible hiding place...

US Ground Forces Raid Pakistan Outposts

Angry Pakistan protests first incursion by American commandos

(Newser) - American commandos raided al-Qaeda encampments inside Pakistan yesterday, the New York Times reports. The US has carried out air strikes in the region before but this is the first acknowledged ground raid inside Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, long suspected of being the hideout of Osama Bin Laden. The commandos were...

US Envoy Dodges Gun Attack in Pakistan

Gunman blocks path, opens fire

(Newser) - The top official in a US consulate in Pakistan and two others escaped serious injury today when a gunman opened fire on their car, CNN reports. Official Lynne Tracey, her bodyguard and driver were heading to the consulate office in violence-wracked Peshawar when their car was blocked by a shooter...

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