In Washington, the CIA concluded that a Pakistani tribal leader's network was behind the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a US intelligence official said, while Pakistani authorities said they arrested a teen allegedly linked to the plot.
The tribal leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is an extremist with strong ties to al-Qaeda and an alliance with the Taliban. He heads up a network in South Waziristan, a lawless border region abutting Afghanistan. He has been blamed for an organized campaign of assassinations of Pakistani officials and suicide bombings across the country.
The CIA concluded that Mehsud was behind the Dec. 27 killing of Bhutto shortly after it occurred, according to an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The Washington Post first reported the CIA's conclusion on Friday in an interview with CIA director Michael Hayden.
"This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden told the newspaper.
The intelligence official said Mehsud, believed to be in his early 30s, is a "committed jihadist" who recruits and trains suicide operatives for the Taliban and al-Qaeda. His network carries out suicide attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, primarily along the border. The attacks have stretched from Nuristan Province in northeast Afghanistan to Helmand Province in the south, he said.
Mehsud's men kidnapped nearly 250 Pakistani soldiers in August and held them until November, when he negotiated the release of two dozen jailed tribesmen, a group that included extremists and would-be suicide bombers.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has blamed Mehsud's movement, Tehrik-e-Taliban, for 19 suicide attacks that have killed more than 450 people over the last three months.
Mehsud, whose tribe of the same name is the most violent in South Waziristan Province, signed a peace pact with Pakistan's army in February 2005.
In it, he promised to deny shelter to foreign al-Qaeda fighters in exchange for an end to military operations in the region and compensation for tribesmen killed by the military.
"It was a disaster for the US. The bad guys had more operational freedom," said Representative Mike Rogers, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism.
Al-Qaeda has since then re-established its headquarters in the sanctuary of the tribal area and suicide bombers and Taliban fighters are believed to cross into Afghanistan regularly to attack civilians and US and Afghan forces.
Meanwhile, Pakistani police arrested 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah, who told investigators he had been part of a five-man squad deployed to kill Bhutto, a senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.
In Islamabad, however, a government spokesman said he could not confirm the official's claim.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS