Post-Sept. 11, Cockpits Are Built to Protect From Outside Threats

German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (Credit: chronicle.co.zw)
German co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (Credit: chronicle.co.zw)

Although airplane cockpits are supposed to be the last line of defense from outside aggressors, airlines have fewer options if the threat comes from within.

By apparently locking the captain out of the cockpit before a German jet crashed Tuesday, the co-pilot appears to have taken advantage of one of the major safety protocols instituted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that turned cockpits into fortresses.

And the crash is already raising questions about possible gaps in how airlines review the mental health of their pilots.

The crash, which killed all 150 people aboard the Germanwings Airbus A320, highlights a major difference between European and American flight deck procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration mandates that a flight attendant must sit in the cockpit when either pilot steps into the passenger area; European regulations do not have a similar two-person rule.

“It is shocking to me that there was not a second person present in the cockpit,” said Mark Rosenker, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Access to the cockpit is strictly regulated in the United States. Passengers are not allowed to congregate near the cockpit door, and whenever the door is open, no one is allowed in the forward bathroom and flight attendants usually block aisle access, sometimes using a food cart.

But the two-person rule did not come about out of a concern of having to deter or fend off a rogue pilot. Rather, the thinking was to never leave a pilot alone in case of illness or incapacitation.

And while a small percentage of American pilots carry guns, the two-person rule is still not a fail-safe against a rogue pilot, experts say.

The Germanwings accident also points to potential shortcomings in how pilots are screened for mental problems, a recurring concern for an industry that demands focus and discipline in an increasingly technical job, often in stressful situations.

“I think that this incident is going to have a profound effect on the industry and how pilots are screened on an ongoing basis and what they are screened for,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director at the National Transportation Safety Board.

While the issue of pilot health has been a longstanding concern in the industry, detecting psychological problems can be a major challenge, Mr. Rosenker said.

In 2012, a well-regarded pilot with JetBlue, one of the airline’s earliest employees, was physically restrained by passengers on a flight from New York to Las Vegas after displaying erratic behavior. In that case, the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cabin and made an emergency landing in Amarillo, Tex.

Afterward, David Barger, the airline’s chief executive at the time, described the pilot as a “consummate professional.”

“I’ve known the captain personally for a long period of time,” Mr. Barger said, “and there’s been no indication of this at all.”

A training video produced in 2002 by Airbus shows the workings and features of the reinforced cockpit door, similar to the one on the Germanwings plane that crashed in the French Alps this week.

Mr. Rosenker said, “You are dealing with humanity, with human frailty, with the human mind.”

Officials at Germanwings and its parent company, Lufthansa, seemed to grapple with this issue on Thursday in trying to explain the incomprehensible.

“We have no indication what could have led the co-pilot to commit this terrible act,” Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa’s chief executive, said at a news conference. “Such an isolated act can never be completely ruled out. The best system in the world can’t stop it.”

The co-pilot, a 27-year-old German identified as Andreas Lubitz, apparently enjoyed his job and had passed all certification tests and medical exams. “He was 100 percent flightworthy without any limitations,” Mr. Spohr said.

In the United States, pilots are screened for medical and psychological issues before being hired and are randomly tested afterward for drug and alcohol use. They must undergo medical examinations once a year if they are under 40, and twice after that, to keep their certification with the F.A.A.

But these exams, performed by general medical practitioners approved by the agency, are not always thorough, according to some pilots, though the agency said they typically include questions about psychological conditions. Still, the airlines and the F.A.A. rely on pilots to voluntarily disclose any physical or mental health problems they may be having or medication they are taking.

Pilots who fail to do so, or who falsify information, face fines that can reach $250,000, according to the F.A.A.

Some pilots, however, may be reluctant to disclose such information, out of fear of losing their jobs. In addition to this self-reporting standard, airlines also rely on other crew members to report suspicious behavior or monitor the health of their co-workers. (That essentially was what happened on the 2012 JetBlue flight.)

“In the U.S., pilots are pretty much allowed to choose their own doctor” from a list of approved practitioners, Mr. Goelz said. “It is not the most rigorous process.”

Cases of a pilot intentionally crashing a plane filled with passengers are rare. There have been at least a half dozen such crashes since the early 1990s, including a Mozambique Airlines jet that went down in Namibia in 2013 and an EgyptAir flight that went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999.

Still, such crashes happen often enough to raise concerns at a time when flying is generally safer than it has been in years, according to safety experts.

“We are looking for 100 percent guarantee,” Mr. Rosenker said of mental health screenings. “You can certainly weed out the easy cases. But when you go to deeper areas, there are no guarantees.”

Talks could begin between Taliban and Afghan government after 13 years of war

Pak Army chief with Afghan president, Feb 17 (Credit: aajtv)
Pak Army chief with Afghan president, Feb 17 (Credit: aajtv)

Islamabad/Kabul, Feb 19  – After more than a decade of war, formal talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban will begin in the coming weeks, the country’s president has told key aides.

According to a senior government official, the president, Ashraf Ghani, believes meetings could begin in early March after Pakistan signalled its support for the move.

Previous western-sponsored attempts to get Afghan government and Taliban representatives around the same table failed under Ghani’s predecessor, Hamid Karzai.

Although the Afghan Taliban’s spokesman denied there were any plans for talks, hopes are rising following Pakistan’s decision to pressurise the insurgent leadership.

On Tuesday, Gen Raheel Sharif, Pakistan’s powerful military chief, travelled to Kabul to tell Ghani the Taliban were increasingly amenable to discussions.

Pakistan has considerable influence over the Taliban, a movement that was supported by Islamabad in the 1990s and which since 2001 has been free to use Pakistani territory to launch attacks against the western-backed government in Kabul.

Since becoming president last year, Ghani has worked assiduously to secure Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table by addressing Pakistani fears that Afghanistan is a base for its enemies.

Ghani has won plaudits from Islamabad by putting on a hold an arms deal with Pakistan’s arch-rival India and by deploying troops against anti-Pakistan militants based in Afghan territory.

In return Ghani expects Pakistan to tell the Taliban to enter negotiations and drastically reduce the surge in militant attacks inside Afghanistan.

Sartaj Aziz, the foreign affairs adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister, said reports of an immediate breakthrough were premature but that progress had been made amid the “quite unprecedented” improvement in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“These things have been going on for the last few weeks,” he said, referring to contacts between Taliban and the Afghan government. “We suggest the right kind of people to talk to and that kind of thing, but this is an Afghan-led process.”

Pakistan has also been pressured to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table by powerful ally China, which is alarmed by the overspill of militancy in the region into western China.

Previous attempts to find a political solution to the 13-year war in Afghanistan came to nothing. In 2013, the Taliban was allowed to open an “office” in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, where talks could be held.

But the process collapsed before it could begin after the Afghan government reacted furiously to the Taliban being allowed to raise their flag over the building as if it was the embassy of a sovereign power.

On Thursday, the US embassy in Kabul denied reported claims by Afghan Taliban sources that insurgent leaders would hold an initial round of talks with US officials as early as Thursday.

“There is no truth to the reports of US involvement in direct talks with the Taliban,” a US diplomat said.

Ajmal Obaid Abidy, spokesman for Ghani, said the international community had accepted demands that peace talks be conducted between the Afghan government and the Taliban, not with outside actors. So the reports of directs talks between the US and the Taliban, Abidy said, “are only rumours”.

Michael Semple, one of the world’s experts on the movement, said Doha was the most likely site of any talks as the Taliban’s “political commission” is already based there.

But he warned there was no guarantee talks would succeed given the Taliban have ramped up attacks in recent months.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the signs on the Taliban side that they are preparing to end the war,” he said. “Maybe there will be a round of talks, but the real test will be whether there will be another spring military campaign.”

Afghan analysts say Ghani will not be able to sustain his tilt towards Pakistan, which is proving unpopular with sections of the public, unless he is rewarded with a sharp decline in violence.

This week Ghani attempted to sooth the concerns of powerbrokers, including former president Hamid Karzai, who was famously distrustful of Pakistan.

“Ghani’s biggest challenge is if the coffins keep coming,” said Bilal Sarwary, one of the country’s top journalists. “But the Taliban have only been preparing to fight.”

US Plagued by Doubts as it Exits Afghan War

WASHINGTON: After 13 years, the United States is winding down its war in Afghanistan, plagued by doubts about what was accomplished at such a high cost.

Instead of a sense of triumph at the close of the longest conflict in America’s history, there is mostly regret and fatigue over a war that claimed the lives of more than 2,300 American troops and cost more than a trillion dollars.

US commanders insist the Afghan security forces will hold the line in a stalemate with the Taliban. But some officials fear a repeat of Iraq, in which an American-trained army virtually collapsed in the face of an extremist onslaught.

A large majority of Americans now say the war was not worth it, and only 23 per cent of US soldiers believe the mission has been a success, according to recent polls.

But when it began, the war enjoyed overwhelming support and victory seemed within reach.

Less than a month after Al Qaeda’s attacks of September 11, 2001, president George W. Bush captured the nation’s sense of righteous anger as he announced military action in Afghanistan in a televised address in October.

The goal was to “disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations,” Bush said, and to attack the Taliban regime that had hosted Al Qaeda and refused to hand over its leaders.

Toppling the Taliban
US objectives were met with stunning speed. Al Qaeda training camps were wiped out and Northern Alliance fighters — backed by US-led air strikes and a small number of American special forces — toppled the Taliban regime within a month.

For the United States, the war seemed all but over. But the Taliban eventually regrouped from safe havens, even as Washington’s attention shifted to a new war in Iraq.
The Taliban grew into a virulent insurgency that exploited resentment of a corrupt, ineffective government in Kabul.

The United States formed the backbone of an international force that found itself in a protracted fight with insurgents.

The US-led contingent steadily expanded — while the goals of the war became increasingly ambitious as well.

Washington and its allies embraced the lofty ideals of nation-building, vowing to fight corruption, foster economic development, and forge a “stable, democratic state” in an impoverished land mired in war for decades.

The results were often disappointing. International aid helped build roads and schools, but it also was blamed for fuelling rampant corruption, with some of the money ending up with the insurgents.

Attempts to broker peace talks with the Taliban in recent years came to nothing. Critics say Washington missed a chance at cutting a deal early in the war, when the insurgents were on the retreat.

Fighting the elusive Taliban, with their homemade bombs and Pakistani sanctuaries, proved frustrating for Western troops, who struggled to grasp the language and tribal rivalries of an alien culture.

Commanders appealed for more troops. And Washington kept sending forces “in the vain hope that something might somehow improve”, wrote retired general Daniel Bolger, author of “Why We Lost”.

Having reached a peak of more than 100,000 US forces, the American presence is down to about 11,000 troops, now that Nato’s combat mission is over.

‘Big test’
The balance sheet for the campaign is decidedly mixed.
The intervention deprived Al Qaeda of a sanctuary, ousted the Taliban from power, eased the repression of women and created an Afghan army that could make it difficult for the insurgents to return to their once dominant role, analysts said.

But Al Qaeda — even after its leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US commandos — has spawned cells elsewhere and inspired new extremists in Syria and Iraq, while women’s advances are fragile and could easily unravel.

The Taliban may no longer run ministries but they are far from defeated and could yet turn the tide against the Kabul government’s army, which has suffered unsustainably high casualties and desertions.

“The Taliban have nowhere near the power they did in 2001, but they are certainly not finished,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank.

US officials hope a huge investment in the Afghan security forces will pay off, but already the insurgents have clawed back control in some areas in the south where American troops have pulled out.

The newly created security force, riddled with ethnic divisions, remains “a question mark”, Felbab-Brown said.

“Next year is a big test for them,” said Carter Malkasian, author of a book on the war who worked as a US diplomat for two years in southern Helmand province.

“If they lose ground, that’s an indication that this war is going to keep going,” he told AFP.

“If that happens, the Taliban are going to get bolder, because the Taliban are not going to see a reason to negotiate.”

We have killed all the children… What do we do now?

Peshawar massacre (Credit: mirror.co.uk)
Peshawar massacre (Credit: mirror.co.uk)

PESHAWAR, Dec 18: `We have killed all the children in the auditorium,` one of the attackers told his handler.

‘What do we do now?` he asked. `Wait for the army people, kill them before blowing yourself,` his handler ordered.

This, according to a security official, was one of the last conversations the attackers and their handler had shortly before two remaining suicide bombers charged towards the special operations soldiers positioned just outside the side entrance of the Army Public School`s administration block here on Tuesday.

This and other conversations between the attackers and their handlers during the entire siege of seven and a half hours of the school on Warsal< Road form part of an intelligence dossier Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif shared with Afghan authorities on Wednesday.

`Vital elements of intelligence were shared with the authorities concerned with regard to the Peshawar incident,` an Inter-Services Public Relations statement on Gen Sharif`s visit to Afghanistan said.

Pakistan has the names of the attackers and the transcripts of the conversation between one of them, identified as Abuzar, and his handler,`commander`Umar.

Umar Adizai, also known as Umar Naray and Umar Khalifa, is a senior militant from the Frontier Region Peshawar.

Security officials believe he made the calls from Nazian district of Afghanistan`s Nangrahar province and now want the Afghan authorities to take action.

The officials believe that a group of seven militants attacked the school. Five of them blew themselves up inside the administration block and two others outside it.

The attackers entered the building by climbing its rear wall, using a ladder and cutting barbed wire. They all headed for the main auditorium where an instructor was giving a first-aid lesson to students of the school`s senior section.

`Did the attackers have prior 1(nowledge of the congregation in the main hall? We don`t know this yet. This is one of the questions we are trying to find an answer to,` a security official said.

A watchman standing at the rear of the auditorium appears to be the first victim because of a pool of congealed blood splashed in one corner of several steps in the open courtyard.

Finding the rear door closed, the militants charged towards the two main entry and exit doors and this is where the main carnage appears to have taken place, according to a military officer who took part in the counter-assault. Pools of blood at the entrance on both sides bore testimony to the horrific, indiscriminate shooting.

`There were piles of bodies, most dead, some alive. Blood everywhere. I wish I had not seen this,` the officer said.

The students in the hall appear to have rushed to leave the place af ter hearing the first round of shooting, and this was where they barged into the waiting militants who were blocking the two doors.

Inside the main hall, there was blood everywhere, almost on every inch of it.

Shoes of students and women teachers lay asunder. Those who had hid behind rows of seats were shot one by one, in the head.

More than 100 bodies and injured were evacuated from the entrances and the hall.

Every row of seats was bloodied. On one seat, there were blood-stained English notebooks of two eighth-grade students, Muhammad Asim and Muhammad Zahid.

A corner to the right of the stage in the auditorium, where an instructor was giving the lesson, was where a woman teacher, who had beseeched the militants to have mercy and let the children go, was shot and later burnt.

By that time, the Special Services Group (SSG) men had arrived and fighting had ensued and the militants were forced tomake a run for the administration block, just a few metres away.

Security officials believe the death toll could have been far higher had the militants reached the junior section before the arrival of the SSG personnel.

It is from inside the administration block that the militants fired at the SSG men.

Four of the militants blew themselves up inside the lobby of the block when they were cornered.

The impact was huge and devastating.

There were pockmarks from the flying ball bearings and human flesh and hair were plastered to the ceiling and the walls.

One of the bombers blew himself up in the office of the Headmistress, Tahira Qazi. Her office stands gutted. Her body was recognised later. A leg of the bomber was lying around.

Two students and three staff members were killed in the administration block along with the headmistress.

The last two bombers charged towards the SSG men who had taken positions on either side of the flank entrance to the block.

One of them exploded himself and after a while, the second one did. Shrapnel and ball bearings hit the rear wall, some pierced through the trees opposite the entrance.

This is where the seven SSG men were injured. One of the personnel who had taken position behind one of the trees was hit in the face, but is reported to be in stable condition.

The assault came to an end but left several questions.

Could the tragedy have been avoided? Yes, given prior specific intelligence tips of August and repeated conveyance of concerns by some teachers regarding the school`s vulnerability vis-a-vis its western and northern boundary walls.

Could the casualties have been avoided or minimised? Probably not, given the short response time. By the time the SSG men arrived and began the operation within 10 to 15 minutes of the assault, the militants had carried out much of the carnage.

There was no clarity on the number of militants and their location. The SSG team arrived through the front gate covered by two armoured personnel carriers. As they moved from block to block, the first major priority was to secure the junior section.

Pakistan Military Kills Al-Qaeda Leader WANTED in US

Adnan Shukrijumah (Credit: newsasiaone.com
Adnan Shukrijumah (Credit: newsasiaone.com
WANA, Pakistan — Pakistani helicopter gunships swooped on a militant hideout in a predawn raid on Saturday and shot dead a top al-Qaeda operative who was wanted in the United States for planning to bomb the New York subway system, the military said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Saudi national Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39, who it said was believed to be al-Qaeda’s external operations chief at one time.

Shukrijumah, a Saudi Arabian native with a Guyanese passport, is the most senior al-Qaeda member ever killed by the Pakistani military.

“In an intelligence borne operation, top al-Qaeda leader Adnan el Shukrijumah was killed by (the) Pakistan Army in an early morning raid in Shinwarsak, South Waziristan today,” the military statement said. The remote region borders Afghanistan.

“His accomplice and local facilitator were also killed in the raid,” the statement said.

The military said that Shukrijumah had recently been forced to move by a Pakistani military operation in neighboring North Waziristan.

The region was the Taliban’s key stronghold in Pakistan and a hotbed of militancy until the military launched an offensive to retake the territory on June 15.

PREDAWN RAID

In Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, all phone lines and mobile phone signals were shut down overnight and the roads were blocked, a Reuters reporter there said.

Residents awoke just before dawn to the thudding of helicopter gunships and the growl of convoys of military vehicles approaching from several directions.

They were heading to a small house on a main road less than five kilometers from the main market on the outskirts of town, a witness said. Residents say the neighborhood is known to be sympathetic to the Taliban and the house had been used to shelter Afghan Taliban fighters for years.

One military official said security forces first heard that Chinese hostages were held at that location and then learned about Shukrijumah’s presence and planned a large operation, the officer said.

Two intelligence officers said the militants opened fire on the Pakistani military and Shukrijumah, who one described as “an Arab national,” was killed in the ensuing gun battle. One soldier was killed and another wounded, the military said.

A military official said five other militants were taken into custody during the raid, but intelligence officials said they were Shukrijumah’s wife and four children.

Shukrijumah is wanted in the United States for conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country.

“The charges reveal that the plot against New York City’s subway system, uncovered in September of 2009, was directed by senior Al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan,” the FBI website said.

The subway plot was described by prosecutors at the time as described as the most serious threat to New York since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Shukrijumah was also linked by U.S. authorities to other suspects, including a group of men accused of planning to bomb fuel pipelines at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and Katharine Houreld in Islamabad; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Drones hit Taliban hideouts in ‘joint Pakistan-U.S.’ raid, say officials

Drones in N. Waziristan (Credit: epakistan.com)
Drones in N. Waziristan
(Credit: epakistan.com)

ISLAMABAD/MIRANSHAH  June 12 – U.S. drones fired missiles at Taliban hideouts in Pakistan killing at least 10 militants in response to a deadly attack on Karachi airport, officials said on Thursday, in the first such raids by unmanned CIA aircraft in six months.

Two top government officials said Islamabad had given the Americans “express approval” for the strikes – the first time Pakistan has admitted to such cooperation.

Underlining Pakistan’s alarm over the brazen Taliban attack on the airport, just weeks after peace talks with the Islamist militants stalled, the officials told Reuters a “joint Pakistan-U.S. operation” had been ordered to hit the insurgents.

Another official said Pakistan had asked the United States for help after the attack on the country’s busiest airport on Sunday, and would be intensifying air strikes on militant hideouts in coming days.

Pakistan publicly opposes U.S. drone strikes, saying they kill too many civilians and violate its sovereignty, although in private officials have admitted the government supports them.

“The attacks were launched with the express approval of the Pakistan government and army,” said a top government official, requesting not to be named as he was not authorised to discuss the issue with the media.

“It is now policy that the Americans will not use drones without permission from the security establishment here. There will be complete coordination and Pakistan will be in the loop.

We understand that drones will be an important part of our fight against the Taliban now,” the official added.

The strikes were the first in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation since an attack in December last year in which three suspected militants were killed. The CIA conducts covert drone operations against terrorism suspects.

Speculation has been rising that Pakistan is preparing for a full-scale military operation in North Waziristan, a scenario Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has resisted for months in favour of a negotiated end to the insurgency.

But talks with the Taliban have collapsed many times since Sharif announced his plan in February and set up a committee of negotiators, mainly over Taliban demands that the government withdraw all troops from tribal areas and impose Sharia law.

AFGHANISTAN CONNECTION

Pakistan military sources said six militants including four Uzbeks were killed in the first strike on Wednesday around five km (three miles) north of Miranshah, the capital of the North Waziristan tribal region where Taliban insurgents are holed up.

The second attack killed four militants in the same area around 2 a.m. on Thursday.

Another source, a senior member of the Afghan Taliban, put the death toll at 16, with 10 killed in the second strike.

A senior member of the Afghan Taliban said all the 10 militants killed in the second strike were affiliated with the feared Haqqani network that regularly launches attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan and which until last month held U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl.

“The drones targeted two mini vans which were carrying Taliban fighters associated with the Haqqani network to Afghanistan for an attack,” the Taliban commander said.

The twin drone strikes came after at least 38 people, including 10 insurgents, were killed when militants raided Karachi airport on Sunday night. The Pakistani Taliban are allied with the Afghan militants of the same name and share a similar jihadist ideology.

But they operate as a separate entity, focused entirely on toppling the Pakistani state and establishing strict Islamic rule, whereas the Afghan Taliban are united by their campaign against invading foreign forces.

Sunday’s assault destroyed prospects for peace talks between the Taliban and Sharif’s government, after months of failed attempts to engage the al Qaeda-linked militants in dialogue on how to end years of violence.

The Pakistan government officially condemned the latest strikes and said such attacks “have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to bring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region”. But top officials privately admit the Pakistani government is weighing all options after the Karachi attack.

(Additional reporting by Asim Tanveer in Multan and Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Jeremy Laurence)

Pakistan begins long-awaited offensive to root out militants in North Waziristan

Pak offensive in North Waziristan (Credit: guardian.co.uk)
Pak offensive in North Waziristan
(Credit: guardian.co.uk)

Islamabad, June 15 – A long-awaited military campaign to destroy militant safe havens in a Taliban-dominated part of Pakistan‘s borderlands began , years after the US first demanded action.

The army said it had launched a “comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan”, the troubled tribal region that has served as a staging area for attacks across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Military sources said as many as 30,000 troops could be involved in the operation to secure the border region, which the army believes must be completed before the end of Nato combat operations this year in Afghanistan.

An official statement said “Operation Zarb-e-Azb” had been launched “on the directions of the government”, but the decision follows months of public controversy over the issue, with leading politicians arguing any attempt to seize control of the area would provoke a violent backlash by the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s cities.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, had instead tried to negotiate a peace deal with militants, something most experts said had no chance of success given the record of militants breaking ceasefires.

Sharif’s obstinacy in the face of army demands for North Waziristan to be dealt with before summer has exacerbated tensions between Pakistan’s civilian and military leaderships, who have clashed over the treason trial of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

The military statement said the country could not afford to wait any longer. “Using North Waziristan as a base, these terrorists had waged a war against the state of Pakistan and had been disrupting our national life in all its dimensions, stunting our economic growth and causing enormous loss of life and property,” it said.

Pakistan’s military had already ramped up pressure on militant groups in North Waziristan in recent weeks, launching air strikes and limited ground operations which it described as limited acts of retaliation against Taliban attacks.

The latest came early on Sunday when the army claimed fighter jets killed 80 terrorists, most of whom it said were Uzbeks involved in last week’s lethal attack on Karachi’s airport. Military sources said Abdul Rehman, a senior commander from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who is said to have masterminded the airport attack, was among the dead.

North Waziristan is part of a swath of forbidding, mountainous border territory that fell under Taliban control after militants fled there from Afghanistan following the US-led invasion of 2001.

It soon became a global hub for a plethora of terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban.

The presence of a large safe haven next to Afghanistan enraged bWashington and Kabul who complained the region was being used to hatch plots, train fighters and prepare suicide bombers who could cross the border to kill Afghan and Nato troops.

But Pakistan refused to act, even after the attempt by a Pakistani American terrorist to bomb New York’s Times Square was traced back to the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan.

In 2011 the North Waziristan-based Haqqani Network, an Afghan militant group, launched a rocket attack on the US embassy in Kabul.

In response the White House expanded the use of missile strikes by unmanned drones to kill suspected militants, although the increase in strikes caused outrage in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s refusal to act in North Waziristan reinforced suspicions that it continues to support and protect some militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban, in order to gain influence in Afghanistan, a country historically feared by Islamabad because of its refusal to drop claims to Pakistani territory and long-standing ties with arch enemy India.

The army argued it was taking action, methodically clawing back control of parts of the tribal north-west that had slipped into militant hands by launching major operations in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan.

Some observers remain sceptical despite Sunday’s announcement. They argue the Haqqani Network and other militant groups regarded as useful allies are likely to be left untouched by the operation or will simply move into unsecured parts of western Afghanistan.

On Sunday the army insisted it would “eliminate these terrorists regardless of hue and colour”.

Despite the dangers posed by North Waziristan, many analysts, including one senior western security official in Islamabad, warn an operation may only succeed in forcing dangerous militants into other parts of the country, including the already turbulent city of Karachi where the Pakistani Taliban has made dramatic inroads in recent years.

They say the police are simply not prepared to fight an urban insurgency.

Speaking on local television defence minister Khawaja Asif said “terrorists may carry out attacks, we have to be watchful”. But he vowed that the operation would be carried through “to its logical conclusion”.

“Any group that uses Pakistan’s soil for terrorism will be eliminated, the operation will continue till the complete destruction of terrorism,” he said.

‘We felt like sitting ducks,’ passenger says of Pakistan airport terrorist attack

Karachi airport burns (Credit: dawn.com)
Karachi airport burns (Credit: dawn.com)

Karachi, Pakistan (CNN) — Terrorists entered Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport at two different spots with a big plan: to destroy a group of parked airplanes and “bring down our aviation industry,” according to the Pakistani government.

It was late Sunday night, and the militants were armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests. They went into the cargo area, about a kilometer (0.62 miles) from where commercial planes take off.

In a “heroic” effort, security forces “laid down their lives” to block the terminal and stop the attackers, surrounding them and killing all of them, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

There were 10 terrorists, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa said, and two of them detonated suicide vests.

By the time the attack was over, 28 people were dead, including eight members of airport security forces, two Pakistan International Airlines employees and one ranger. Another 24 people were injured, the military said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault on the country’s largest and busiest airport.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, Pakistani Taliban commander Abdullah Bahar said the attack was retaliation for the death of former chief Hakimullah Mehsud, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November in North Waziristan.

Bahar warned more attacks will follow.

“As long as we are breathing, our attacks will be continuing ’til the end of our lives,” he vowed.

Fire followed attack

A building caught fire in the attack, but no planes were damaged, Bajwa said. The airport reopened Monday.

Some Pakistani media reported a renewed gun battle at the airport later Monday morning. But officials told CNN the noise was from fire-heated chemical containers exploding.

Still, as a precaution, security forces opened fire, said Ahmad Chinoy of the Citizen’s Police Liaison Committee. He said he was 100% sure there were no militants left in the airport.

Several days ago, Pakistan’s government had warned provincial officials of a possible “high-profile attack on a sensitive or key installation,” said Qaim Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh province. But the warning, he said, did not mention the airport.

‘We felt like sitting ducks’

Farooq Sattar, a member of parliament, was on a plane at the airport when the attack took place.

“My aircraft was on the tarmac ready to take off when suddenly, from what I understand, a message came to the pilot saying to get off the runway and return to the gate,” Sattar told CNN. “I heard shots and saw smoke.”

“Before the pilot could announce anything, I had text messages blowing up my phone saying ‘Karachi airport under attack.’ We were in the aircraft for three hours, full of fuel. They locked the doors.

“The airport was poorly guarded. It was only due to some airport security personnel that the attack got thwarted and the militants didn’t make it to our part of the airport. Passengers were extremely nervous. They started looking at me for answers.”

“We felt like sitting ducks on the tarmac,” he added.

Two crew members who were on their first ever flight “freaked out,” Sattar said.

History of terror

The Pakistani Taliban, which is formally known as Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has long conducted an insurgency against the Pakistani government.

“Their primary target is the Pakistani state and its military,” said Raza Rumi of the Jinnah Institute, a Pakistani think tank.

“It resents the fact that (Pakistan) has an alliance with the West, and it wants Sharia to be imposed in Pakistan.”

The group claimed responsibility for a December 2009 suicide bombing at the United States’ Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan.

The attack killed seven U.S. citizens, including five CIA officers and a member of Jordanian intelligence.

The U.S. Justice Department charged Mehsud in 2010 for his alleged involvement in the attack.

Mehsud took over from Baitullah Mehsud, a fellow clan member, in 2009 after the latter was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Four years later, Hakimullah Mehsud suffered the same fate.

More claims and threats

Another TTP member claimed that the Pakistani government has been “abducting and killing innocent people,” and explained why the airport was targeted.

“We chose a location where there would be less civilian and more official casualties,” TTP representative Shahidullah Shahid said.

Shahid warned the group will engage “in a full-out war with the Pakistani state, starting on June 10.”

But “if even now the Pakistani government backs down,” Shahid said, “we are ready to engage in meaningful dialogue.”

Karachi airport attackers were disguised as security workers

More violence

The airport wasn’t the only site of violence in Pakistan on Sunday.

Twin suicide attacks near the border with Iran left 24 people dead, including four terrorists, authorities said. Qambar Dashti, commissioner of the Quetta Division, told CNN two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a hotel where dozens of Shia pilgrims from Iran were staying.

Dashti said 14 out of 18 wounded pilgrims were in critical condition.

Extremist Sunni militant group Jaish el-Islam, a splinter group of Lashkar e Jhangvi, claimed responsibility.

On Monday, while Karachi operated as usual, there was violence in other parts of the country.

Three soldiers were killed and many others were wounded in a suspected suicide attack at a checkpoint in North Waziristan, military officials said.

Obama Outlines Plan on Ending Longest War in US History
`Its harder to end wars than to begin them’ – US president

Afghan transition (Credit: downwardtrend.com)
Afghan transition
(Credit: downwardtrend.com)

WASHINGTON, May 27- U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined a plan to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and pull out the rest by the end of 2016, ending more than a decade of military engagement triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The decision means that Obama will leave office in early 2017 having extricated the country from the longest war in U.S. history. He ended Washington’s combat presence in Iraq in 2011.

Obama’s White House Rose Garden announcement prompted criticism from Republicans that the hard-fought gains made against the Taliban could be lost in much the same way that sectarian violence returned to Iraq after the U.S. withdrawal.

Obama, who made a whirlwind visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan over the weekend before American combat operations conclude at the end of 2014, appeared to anticipate concerns that he is abandoning Afghanistan. He said it is time for Afghans to secure their country.

“We have to recognize that Afghanistan will not be a perfect place, and it is not America’s responsibility to make it one,” Obama said.

Under his plan, 9,800 U.S. troops would remain behind into next year. By the end of 2015, that number would be reduced by roughly half.

By the end of 2016, the U.S. presence would be cut to a normal embassy presence with a security assistance office in Kabul, as was done in Iraq.

The 9,800 troops would take an advisory role backing up Afghan forces. They would train Afghan troops and help guide missions to rout out remaining al Qaeda targets.

Any U.S. military presence beyond 2014 is contingent on Afghanistan’s government signing a bilateral security agreement with the United States.

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign it. But U.S. officials were encouraged that the two leading candidates in Afghanistan’s presidential race, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, have both pledged to sign quickly should they be elected in the second round of voting set for June 14.

Obama said the lengthy U.S. presence in Afghanistan is proof that “it’s harder to end wars than it is to begin them.”

“But this is how wars end in the 21st century: not through signing ceremonies but through decisive blows against our adversaries, transitions to elected governments, security forces who are trained to take the lead and ultimately full responsibility,” he said.

While Americans have long since grown weary of a conflict in which nearly 2,200 U.S. troops have been killed, some Republicans greeted the news with skepticism.

They continued a drumbeat of criticism of the president’s handling of foreign policy and national security ahead of a speech on the subject Obama is to give on Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

“The president’s decision to set an arbitrary date for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan is a monumental mistake and a triumph of politics over strategy,” Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a statement.

A senior Obama administration official bristled at the notion that the United States would be leaving Afghan forces to do battle against the Taliban alone.

“We never signed up to be the permanent security force in Afghanistan to fight against the Taliban,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

The United States now has about 32,000 troops in Afghanistan. U.S. military leaders had pushed for a force of at least around 10,000, saying it was the minimum required.

Remaining U.S. and NATO forces will advise Afghan forces, focusing on functions such as budgeting, logistics, and support for security institutions.

NATO countries have helped build Afghanistan’s military and other forces from scratch since 2001. While Afghan forces have grown more independent, they lack key skills such as intelligence collection and air power.

As part of the post-2014 force, a small number of U.S. soldiers is expected to conduct counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda and other hardline militants, located mainly in remote areas along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart, Missy Ryan, David Alexander, Patricia Zengerle, Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton; Editing by David Storey and Jonathan Oatis)

Taliban’s Mullah Omar Celebrates Prisoner Swap for Bergdhal

Bergdhal (inset) with parents & Obama (Credit: nydailynews.com)
Bergdhal (inset) with
parents & Obama
(Credit: nydailynews.com)

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has issued a rare public statement hailing the exchange of five Guantanamo Bay detainees for a Taliban-held US soldier as a “big victory”.

Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, 28, was handed to US forces in Afghanistan on Saturday.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has defended the exchange amid criticism Congress was not given 30 days’ notice before the detainees were released.

He said the US had to act quickly to save the soldier’s life.

Mullah Omar, who has made no public appearances or speeches since fleeing Afghanistan in 2001 when US-led forces toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks in the US, said: “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the entire Afghan Muslim nation.”

The Afghan government, which was not informed of the deal until after the exchange had taken place, has condemned it as a breach of international law.

Sgt Bergdahl, who is said to be in good condition and has been flown to Germany for more treatment, was the only US soldier being held by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The five senior Afghan detainees are thought to be the most senior Afghans held at the US detention facility in Cuba, having been captured during America’s military campaign in 2001.

Republican opponents have criticised the Pentagon for not giving Congress the required 30-day notification before releasing the five.

But Mr Hagel, who reportedly met some of the special forces team involved in the operation on a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, said the military believed the soldier was in danger, and had to act quickly “essentially to save his life”.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice told US television there had been extensive consultations with Congress in the past about getting Sgt Bergdahl back, and lawmakers knew about the idea of trading detainees.

Mohammad Fazl served as the Taliban’s deputy defence minister during America’s military campaign in 2001. Accused of possible war crimes, including the murder of thousands of Shia Muslims.

Khirullah Khairkhwa was a senior Taliban official serving as interior minister and governor of Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city. Alleged to have had direct links to Osama Bin Laden.

Abdul Haq Wasiq was the Taliban’s deputy minister of intelligence. Said to have been central in forming alliances with other Islamist groups to fight against US and coalition forces.

Mullah Norullah Noori was a senior Taliban military commander and a governor. Also accused of being involved in the mass killings of Shia Muslims.

Mohammad Nabi Omari held multiple Taliban leadership roles, including chief of security. Alleged to have been involved in attacks against US and coalition forces.

While hopeful the prisoner exchange could lead to a breakthrough in negotiations with the Taliban, Mr Hagel said getting Sgt Bergdahl back had been the priority.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was informed of the prisoner-swap “after the fact”, he added.

In a statement, the Afghan ministry of foreign affairs insisted that “handing over prisoners to a third country is a breach of international law”.

It added: “We are strongly opposed to it. We want Qatar and the US government to let the men go free.”

Parents Robert and Jani Bergdahl said they were “joyful and relieved” to hear of their son’s release, adding that he was having trouble speaking English due to his long captivity.

The US president, who was joined at the White House by Sgt Bergdahl’s parents, Robert and Jani, said ”he was never forgotten”

President Obama said on Saturday that he had received security guarantees from Qatar – which mediated the deal and where the five Afghan men have been flown – “that it will put in place measures to protect our national security”.

Under the deal, they will be banned from leaving Qatar for at least a year.

A video grab image from 2010 showed Sgt Bergdahl in captivity

The soldier, of Hailey, Idaho, was serving with an infantry regiment in Paktika province near the Pakistani border and went missing on 30 June 2009, months after being deployed to Afghanistan.

The circumstances of his capture remain unclear, with speculation he may have walked away from his base out of disillusionment with the US campaign.

US officials say any decision over possible desertion charges will be made by the army, but there is a feeling the soldier has suffered enough.

Throughout his captivity, the soldier’s hometown had continued to remember him with special events and yellow ribbons tied to trees