FDD's Long War Journal

Al Qaeda

Pakistan military ‘biggest obstacle’ to Afghan reconciliation with Taliban

Hafiz Saeed preaches jihad in Kashmir

Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed. The Pakistani government wants the world to believe it is sincere in its fight against Islamist terror groups, but at the same time refuses to deal with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its front group, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Even though both groups are banned, its leader, Hafiz Saeed, who has been implicated by the […]

Al Qaeda

Pakistan – Karachi bombings a ‘conspiracy’ to paralyse financial hub

More on the fog of the Predator war

At The Wall Street Journal, Matthew Rosenberg rams home the point that US and Pakistani intelligence services are really in the dark on the status of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. “We won’t know for certain until the Taliban want us to know,” said Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistani official who […]

Know your enemy

The BBC has a chilling story of Meena, a young Pakistani girl from Dir whose father and brother are Taliban. The father and brother had recruited, trained, and deployed many suicide bombers, according to Meena. They tried to make her become a suicide bomber, too, and forced her 9-year-old younger sister to carry out a […]

US forces courting Mullah Omar’s father-in-law?

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Amir al Mumineen (“the commander of the faithful”) of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. The Financial Times shares these highlights about one of the elders US commanders in Arghandab are trying to bring on side as part of their work to bring Afghans on side: Once locked up in Guantánamo Bay […]

Afghanistan

Pakistan ‘ready to help’ Afghan reconciliation: ministry

Al Qaeda

Pakistani N-arsenal safe but vulnerable: US

Hakeemullah alive?

Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US Humvee looted from a NATO supply column in Khyber. First Hakeemullah was dead, US and Pakistani officials said. Now he’s alive, an anonymous Pakistani intelligence official told Dawn: A senior government functionary has told DawnNews on condition of anonymity that Hakeemullah Mehsud may have survived a drone strike. The official […]

United States

A US federal court convicted Aafia Siddiqui of attempting to kill a US soldier and an FBI agent after she was arrested in Afghanistan. “This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America,” she yelled after the verdict was read. Siddiqui is an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist linked to al Qaeda and was carrying instructions to […]

Al Qaeda

Pakistan has reversed Taliban gains: Mullen

Yemen

A Pakistani explosives expert built the bomb that was used in the attempt to assassinate Saudi Prince Muhammad Bin Naif Bin Abdul Aziz in Jeddah late last year, according to the governor of Abyan province. The unnamed Pakistani is said to have trained other al Qaeda operatives in the use of explosives and is believed […]

No tape from Hakeemullah needed: Taliban spokesman

Hakeemullah and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, before the Pakistani Army launched the South Waziristan offensive in October 2009. Tariq Azam, the top spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, backtracked on statements made by other Taliban commanders who said Hakeemullah Mehsud would release a tape to prove he was alive. From The Associated Press: […]

Predators pound terrorist camp in North Waziristan

Eighteen missiles were reported to have been fired from five unmanned strike aircraft. Seventeen terrorists are said to have been killed.

Afghanistan

Pakistan offers to train Afghan soldiers

Afghanistan

Pakistan does not want to control Afghanistan: Kayani

Hakeemullah and the fog of the Predator war

Hakeemullah Mehsud, left. AFP photo. An unnamed Taliban commander said that the group will provide “proof” that Hakeemullah Mehsud is alive and survived the Jan. 14 airstrike carried out by US forces. From The Associated Press: A close aide to Mehsud called the report of the militant chief’s death “government propaganda” and said he was […]

US airstrike targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan

Nine Haqqani Network fighters have been reported killed. The strike is the first in 10 days.

Afghanistan

Pakistan seeks role as mediator in possible Taliban-Afghanistan peace talks

Hamid Gul on Taliban negotiations

Former ISI chief Hamid Gul. While it pains me to have to quote Hamid Gul, the former chief of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and an al Qaeda and Taliban ally, he is absolutely correct concerning the so-called high level talks with the Taliban. From Adnkronos International: “This [claims of high-level talks with the Taliban] is […]

US kills senior Syrian-based al Qaeda facilitator in Mosul

Abu Khalaf was killed during a Jan. 22 raid in the northern city. According to US intelligence, he entered Iraq last fall to direct operations.

China

China mulls setting up military base in Pakistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Ex-Pakistan spy chief says UK summit will fail

Taliban reject peace talks

The Taliban leadership council again demanded that Western forces withdraw from Afghanistan and insisted it would reestablish the Islamic Emirate.

Kashmir

An explosion outside a school in Rawalakot in Pakistan-held Kashmir wounded 13 police and civilian bomb disposal experts. Two of the experts were seriously wounded. The school is thought to have been the target.

The Eikenberry memos on Afghanistan

US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry. The New York Times has dropped a bombshell by publishing Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s memos that were written in early November that explained his opposition to the ‘surge’ of 30,000 US forces in Afghanistan. According to Eikenberry, who served as the top commander in Afghanistan for an 18-month stint that […]