Daily brief: Pakistan's northwest rocked by militant attacks

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Peshawar under attack

The northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar has been hit by militant attacks nearly daily for the last week, killing at least 50 people; early this morning, a pickup truck filled with explosives blasted a police checkpoint in the town of Badh Ber, some seven miles south of Peshawar near a Pakistani air force base, killing four and wounding 30 (AP, Reuters, Dawn, Geo TV, Al Jazeera, BBC). And on Sunday, gunmen targeted pro-government tribal elders in the tribal agency of Bajaur, north of Peshawar, and on the outskirts of the capital of the Northwest Frontier Province (BBC, CNN, Dawn). While the leader from Bajaur was killed in the assault, the mayor from Peshawar, who had raised an anti-Taliban lashkar, escaped unhurt.

On Saturday, a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in Peshawar, killing at least 11, including women, children, and Pakistani policemen (AFP, Dawn, BBC, AP, New York Times). The Taliban, who are automatically suspected in most if not all attacks in northwestern Pakistan, have claimed responsibility for several of the recent strikes, including Friday's bombing at the regional headquarters of Pakistan's intelligence services, the ISI, while denying responsibility for others that killed mostly civilians (CNN, The News). Rather, a Taliban spokesman blamed the attacks targeting civilians on the contracting company formerly known as Blackwater. Taliban tactics like suicide attacks, car bombings, and targeted assassinations mimic the violence used by guerrillas in Iraq (AFP).

Pakistani authorities are growing increasingly worried about collaboration between Punjabi militants and the largely Pashtun Taliban in northwest Pakistan, citing an "assembly line like Ford Motors" for Punjabi recruits interested in fighting in Waziristan, the site of a one month old Pakistani military offensive (Los Angeles Times). And the Obama administration is stepping up the pressure on Pakistan to expand its fight against the Taliban in order to support the expected troop increase in Afghanistan (New York Times). Pakistanis are concerned that the U.S. will alternately add too many troops to Afghanistan, forcing militants to bottleneck over the border and complicating the South Waziristan offensive, or that the U.S. effort will end too soon.

Spook watching

Greg Miller has today's must-read detailing the financial relationship between the CIA and the ISI in Pakistan, reporting that the CIA's payments to the ISI have accounted for as much as one-third of the Pakistani spy agency's budget (Los Angeles Times). Officials say the CIA has also brought ISI operatives to a secret training facility in North Carolina, even as the U.S. is concerned that Pakistan is still supporting certain militant factions in the country. And France's newly retired top investigative judge for counterterrorism, Jean-Louis Bruguière, has claimed in a just-released book that the Pakistani Army until recently ran training camps for Lashkar-e-Taiba with the acceptance of the CIA, and that the LeT has become "part" of the al Qaeda network (Times of London).

And on the political front, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is suffering from two key strikes against him: corruption charges and the perception that he is too close to the United States (Washington Post). Though it is considered unlikely that the Army will stage a coup against him, Pakistani officials and civilians alike have expressed their discontent with the leader, who came to power on a wave of sympathy after Taliban militants assassinated his wife, Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007. And U.S. National Security Adviser Jim Jones reportedly delivered a letter to Zardari from U.S. President Barack Obama urging the Pakistani president to rally the nation's political and military institutions behind the anti-militant campaign (New York Times).

Corruption watching

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday encouraged Afghanistan's embattled President Hamid Karzai to "do better" if he wanted continued U.S. support and urged the formation of a "major crimes tribunal" to serve as an "anti-corruption commission" in the country where bribes and kickbacks are commonplace (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters). Afghanistan's attorney general, Ishaq Aluko, reportedly has a list of officials and ministers suspected of taking bribes, and has asked Karzai and the Supreme Court to set up a special court to deal with these cases, while a major crime unit has just been formed to address corruption in the country (BBC, AFP, AFP). NATO is also reportedly setting up a small taskforce to gather evidence that will then be turned over to what has been called the "Afghan FBI" (Guardian).

By the end of November, the U.S. plans to begin moving the first of its 700 detainees at Bagram air field to a new $60 million detention facility elsewhere on the base in an attempt to provide better living conditions to detainees (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal). Officials expect to close the old prison by the end of the year and are planning to institute a system of administrative hearings for inmates to contest their detention with the help of military-appointed counsel, though critics assess the hearings are a "far cry" from an impartial criminal court.

And as Obama weighs whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, budget implications are rife: it appears that no matter how many soldiers are sent to the country, each one will cost about $1 million per year (New York Times). Some government estimates suggest that it could also cost up to $50 billion over the next five years to double the size of Afghan security forces.

Security in Afghanistan

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently announced the formation of a new task force at the Pentagon to address the threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan, which are responsible for some 80 percent of U.S. casualties (Washington Post). And late last night, suspected militants fired a handful of rockets at the airport in Kabul, though no casualties have been reported (AP, Pajhwok). Rockets were also fired this morning at a crowded market northeast of the capital city, killing four and wounding 38 in Kapisa province (AP, AFP, AP).

Another threat reportedly comes from within British prisons, which according to a new report by a British think tank, have been the site of imprisoned al Qaeda leaders smuggling out fatwas to their followers (Times of London). The full report is available from the Quilliam Foundation (Quilliam).

Afghanistan's troubled southern Helmand province has been the site of fierce fighting between British troops and Taliban militants, and some 80 suspected extremists have been killed in the last ten days of fighting (Telegraph, Telegraph). The town of Musa Qala has presented a particularly difficult challenge for coalition forces (Times of London). And militants in the adjacent province of Kandahar this morning attacked a police checkpoint, killing at least nine, including three Afghan policemen, while McClatchy reports that the once-calm northern Afghan province of Balkh has a growing Taliban presence (Pajhwok, AP, Reuters, McClatchy).

And in eastern Afghanistan, French and Afghan troops are battling Taliban militants in the Tagab Valley in an offensive named "Operation Avalon" (AFP). The Afghan insurgency is presenting a stark challenge to German troops stationed in the north, as German soldiers are limited by their rules of engagement, which prevent participation in aggressive operations like last week's battle in Kunduz, a region ostensibly under German control, in which Afghan and U.S. forces killed some 130 militants (Wall Street Journal).

The home front

In his first interview with a journalist since Maj. Nidal Hasan's rampage at Ft. Hood, the radical Yemeni cleric with whom Hasan communicated said he "blessed" the shooting, which left 13 dead, because it was against a military target (Washington Post). Anwar al-Aulaqi said however that he did not order or pressure Hasan to harm Americans. Hasan's trial will face many hurdles, as well (New York Times).

And the news late last week that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and several other accused 9/11 plotters will face trial in the Southern District of New York sparked a variety of reactions and presents a number of legal challenges (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, McClatchy). And some Guantanamo detainees may be headed for a maximum security prison in Illinois (New York Times).

The pill in Afghanistan

A nonprofit organization has taken somewhat taboo topics like birth control and fertility to the mullahs in Afghanistan, seeking buy-in from the religious leaders to help improve maternal health and control a high birthrate in a country whose average per capita earnings per year are $700 (New York Times). In 2009, the sale of birth control pills nearly doubled from January to September.

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A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images