US stepping up unilateral attacks in Pakistan: report

WASHINGTON  ( 2008-03-27 21:50:06 ) : 

The United States has stepped up unilateral strikes against al Qaeda and foreign fighters in tribal areas, partly because of fears the country's new leaders will insist they be scaled back, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the substance of the report, which said US-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least three sites used by al Qaeda operatives over the past two months.
"Our operations with Pakistan are closely coordinated," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. "Pakistan recognizes that we fight a common enemy when it comes to terrorists."
Musharraf's allies lost elections last month, and new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told US President George W. Bush this week that a broader approach to the "war on terror" is necessary, including political solutions.
The strikes followed a "tacit understanding" with Musharraf and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani that permits US strikes on foreign militants in Pakistan, but not against Pakistanis, the Post quoted officials as saying.
It quoted one senior official as describing the strikes as a "shake the tree" strategy designed to force al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and key lieutenants to move in ways that US intelligence can detect.
There was no immediate response from Pakistani officials on the report.
Pakistan has never formally admitted to allowing such missile strikes and Musharraf earlier this year said that unauthorized military actions on Pakistani soil would be treated as an invasion.
The report came as two senior US diplomats, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs Richard Boucher, continued a visit to Pakistan apparently aimed at wooing the new government.
A senior partner in the new coalition government, former premier Nawaz Sharif, warned the envoys earlier this week that parliament would review Musharraf's "one-man" strategy against extremism.
Sharif said he told them that it was unacceptable for Pakistan -- which has suffered a recent wave of suicide bombings blamed on militants -- to become a "murder-house" for the sake of US policies.

Al-Qaeda saboteurs with Hajj disruptive plan arrested

RIYADH: The Saudi Arab security forces arrested suspected Al-Qaeda operatives, who forged terrorist plan on the occasion of Hajj, the interior ministry said on Friday.

"The authorities have arrested a group which planned to carry out a terrorist act aimed at harming security and damaging the (hajj) pilgrimage," General Mansur al-Turqi, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying.

The spokesman said the attack planned by a "deviant group", the Saudi term for militants linked to Al-Qaeda, did not however target Islam's holiest sites in Makkah or the pilgrims.

Earlier, a Dubai-based television said Saudi authorities arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out attacks during the hajj, quoting Saudi security officials.

The Saudi sources said the arrests were made in several different cities of the oil-rich kingdom.

"The group aimed to trouble the security of the pilgrimage" which has this week attracted almost 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from around the world to Islam's holiest sites in western Saudi Arabia, the television report said.

Members of the group, whose number was unknown, were arrested "three days before the start of the hajj season", or at the end of last week, the sources said while talking to the Dubai based news TV.

The reports emerged as the hajj was winding down on Friday.

The authorities were on high alert this year because of the participation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first president from the Islamic republic to take part in the hajj.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said in early December that his forces had foiled "more than 180 terrorist operations" since a wave of bombings and shootings by the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda broke out four years ago.

There were no major incidents reported during this year's hajj.

According to official Saudi figures, a total of 2,454,325 pilgrims from 181 nations, 1,707,814 of them from outside the Gulf state, performed this year's pilgrimage.