Picking
up the pieces
A day after the first militant attack on a
U.S. mission in Pakistan since 2006, U.S. and Pakistani investigators
are puzzling over how six Pakistani Taliban militants armed with suicide
vests, two car bombs, machine guns, and rocket propelled grenades
managed to launch a sophisticated, deadly assault on the U.S. consulate
in Peshawar (Dawn/AFP, AFP, NYT, Wash Post, McClatchy, BBC,
The News). The U.S. expressed "great concern" over
yesterday's attack, which left six Pakistanis dead, and the United
Nations has closed its offices in Peshawar today and tomorrow for
security reasons. Earlier this morning, Pakistani police killed two
suspected suicide bombers on the outskirts of Peshawar (AP).
Clashes between the Pakistani military
and militants in Orakzai continue, as helicopter gunships targeted
extremist strongholds in Miangano, Kalay, and Handara, and some 235
militants have been killed since the operations began several weeks ago (Daily Times, Reuters). The Journal discusses State Department
lawyer Harold Koh's legal defense of U.S. drone
strikes in northwest Pakistan, writing that CIA officials claim
between 400 and 500 suspected militants have been killed in the strikes
since January of 2009, and only 20 civilians (WSJ). Pakistan's Daily Times reports that
"indigenously developed" drones were seen flying over the northeastern
Pakistani city of Sargodha yesterday (Daily Times).
Karen DeYoung reports that the
Pakistani Army's alleged 'extrajudicial killings' in the country's
northwestern Swat Valley threatens U.S. aid, which requires Congress to
certify that Pakistan is adhering to human rights norms (Wash Post). And the German magazine Der Spiegel
profiles some of the nearly 100 Germans who have migrated to North and
South Waziristan, both frequently targeted by drone strikes, in the last
several years seeking life in the combat zone (Spiegel). For more on the militant pipeline between
the West and Pakistan, click this recent paper by investigative
reporter Paul Cruickshank (NAF).
Taxi
driver
The Pakistani-born U.S. citizen and cab driver in
Chicago who is accused of sending money in an attempt to aid al-Qaeda
yesterday pleaded not guilty (AP, ToI, Bloomberg). Prosecutors allege that Raja Lahrasib
Khan wired $950 to Pakistan last November and accepted $1,000 in
unmarked bills from an undercover agent, promising it would be sent to
Pakistan to purchase weapons, and Khan could face up to 15 years in
prison on each charge.
Air power
and politics
A NATO airstrike on a residence in the
Nahr-e Saraj area of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province earlier
today killed four suspected insurgents and four civilians who were
inside the compound unbeknownst to security forces, who were reportedly
being fired upon from inside (AFP, AP, ISAF, Pajhwok). Two men, a woman, and a child were killed,
and NATO is investigating (Reuters). And yesterday, a Baghlan provincial
councilwoman was shot in the leg and abdomen in the latest instance of
an attempted targeted assassination by militants, and NATO forces killed
10 militants in a firefight in Nangarhar (AP). Before dawn this morning, a NATO-Afghan
offensive in Badghis left 27 Taliban fighters dead in the western
province (AP).
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs
described Afghan President Hamid Karzai's recent threat to join the
Taliban if the West keeps pressuring him to reform as "genuinely
troubling" yesterday, though Karzai told CNN that he has no intention of
breaking with the United States and said he just wanted to "make sure
we all understand as to where each one of us stands," while Afghan
lawmakers agreed that Karzai's threat didn't seem serious (CNN, LAT, Pajhwok, AP). Some analysts assess that Karzai's recent
anti-Western rhetoric is designed to shore him up at home after an
abrupt recent visit by U.S. President Barack Obama (AP). The Afghan president's trip to Washington on
May 12 is still on.
A
love for the ages?
The much-discussed marriage between the
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik
might be postponed from April 15 after an Indian woman claiming to be
his first wife recently came forward (ToI, Bloomberg, CNN). Malik says he wed the first wife over the
phone in 2002, but claims the union isn't valid because the photos he
was sent before their telephone marriage were not actually of her, and
they've never met.
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