And Then There Was One

Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has gone after al Qaeda all around the globe, and those efforts have paid off. The group is now down to essentially one recognizable face - Ayman al Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden's right hand man since the group came into existence.

Zawahiri is believed to be in the frontier provinces of Pakistan, and he's probably spending most of his time trying not to get caught by US spymasters who have the quite lethal UAVs at their disposal.

As a result, according to senior U.S. counterterrorism officials, there now remains only one leader of any consequence in al Qaeda and that is Ayman al Zawahiri, the tetchy Egyptian surgeon who became the head of the group following the death of its founder, Osama bin Laden, in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan in May 2011.

Zawahiri, presumably, is keenly aware of the fate of so many of his longtime colleagues in al Qaeda. He will be expending considerable energy not to end up on the business end of a missile fired by a CIA drone if he, too, is hiding in the Pakistani tribal regions where the drone strikes have been concentrated.

Meanwhile, Zawahiri faces an almost impossible task to follow through on al Qaeda's main mission: attacking the United States, or failing that, one of its close allies.
Al Qaeda hasn't conducted a successful attack in the West since the bombings on London's transportation system on July 7, 2005, and of course, the group hasn't succeeded in attacking the United States for more than a decade.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains committed to carrying out attacks against the US and its interests around the world but hasn't managed to successfully carry out the kind of high profile attacks that the group was known for previously. Attempts to take down airlines have failed, though the group only has to do so once in order to achieve its aims.

It's a far cry from the 9/11 attacks and the terror group's largest effort since the 9/11 attacks was in the London subway bombings in 2005.

The group remains committed to carrying out attacks, but the threat has morphed into concerns about lone wolf individuals or groups - terrorists who share goals but aren't directly tied to al Qaeda or Zawahiri.

Just because there are lesser known terrorists (though that list still includes Adam Gadahn and Adnan G. El Shukrijumah) involved in the group doesn't mean we should discount the threat. We need to recognize the work done to get to this point, and the hard work ahead in trying to keep the nation safe from these terror groups and individuals who are intent upon doing harm to the US. At the same time, the risks from a successful attack are quite low to most Americans.

Afghanistan-US Pact Means US Presence In Afghanistan For Foreseeable Future

Despite claims that US forces will be leaving Afghanistan by 2014, the fact is that the US will continue to maintain a presence in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future - a decade or longer.

The reasons have as much to do with geography as they do politics.

Afghanistan is vital not only because the US needs to continue to deny al Qaeda a breeding ground in the country that played host to al Qaeda in the runup to the 9/11 attacks, but because it is adjacent to the current breeding grounds for al Qaeda and its affiliated terror groups in Pakistan.

Details of the pact have yet to be released. But over the past year, top generals and Pentagon officials have sketched — in congressional testimony, interviews and forum discussions — an outline of how the U.S. will operate after the accord takes effect, following the departure of most U.S. troops in 2014. U.S. and Afghan troops will live together on joint bases formally operated by the Afghans. The U.S. mission for training Afghan soldiers and police will continue until 2017 or so, although for financial reasons, the size of those Afghan troops under U.S. mentorship will shrink after 2014. Starting immediately, Afghans will have significant if incomplete influence over U.S. commando raids.

But these mentorship missions will not be the most important ones the U.S. executes in Afghanistan after 2014. They’re merely the visible ones. And they’re the cost of getting to the missions the U.S. considers most important.


To be blunt: Afghanistan is valuable to the United States because it’s the most logical place from which to conduct a war in Pakistan that’s primarily fought by armed drones and occasionally special operations forces. It’s not really valuable in and of itself. The U.S. interests in Afghanistan, as defined by the Obama administration, are to keep Afghanistan from internal collapse so al-Qaida doesn’t return. President Hamid Karzai’s government is corrupt? Yawn. Dealing with that is an expensive diversion from the core issue.

The core issue, as the Obama team sees it, is that there’s a residual al-Qaida presence next door, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Because Pakistan won’t let U.S. troops overtly operate on its territory, the U.S. basically needs to rent some nearby property. Afghanistan doesn’t have much to offer the rest of the world — minerals, maybe? — but it has a lot of land abutting Pakistan.

That's right.

It's about maintaining forces close to Pakistani territory. Pakistan, which is nominally a US ally in the war on terror is itself the territory targeted with this deal so that the US can continue to target and eliminate al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists in the frontier provinces that Pakistan's government lacks the ability to contain.

The frontier provinces, including the NWFP and Waziristan, are a hotbed of terrorist activities, and cross-border attacks are all too common. Pakistan maintains nominal control over the territories, which operates autonomously and when Pakistan has sent in military forces to quell the terrorist activities, they've gotten savaged.

In the past three years, the frontier provinces have been increasingly targeted by American UAV airstrikes - hitting high value targets and tracking down links between various terrorists operating there, including the Mehsud clan and Haqqani network.

Those raids, along with the successful raid to eliminate Osama bin Laden, have caused tremendous friction between the US and Pakistani government and the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI). The Administration appears to be accepting the fact that relations with Pakistan will continue to be rocky, but there may be a tacit deal in place to allow the US to use Afghanistan as a staging area for its UAV strikes to go after targets that Pakistan deems inconvenient - the Islamic terror groups like al Qaeda and those other terror groups. Such a deal would give the Pakistani government the maneuvering space to decry UAV airstrikes, but give silent assent to those successful strikes that eliminate threats to Pakistani security as well. After all, the Haqqani network is as much a threat to Pakistan's government as it is to Afghanistan (or the US).

Continuing Fallout From US bin Laden Raid; US Launched Raids Into Pakistan Prior to Successful Bin Laden Raid

While the successful mission to kill Osama bin Laden rightfully gets tons of press, it was hardly the first time that the elite DEVGRU/SEAL Team 6 operated within Pakistan with orders to go after high value targets. In fact, two such missions were carried out during the Bush Administration, but they came away without getting their targets. In one instance, the target was Ayman al Zawahiri.

But what it reveals is that last Monday's operation, which has sparked ferocious debate in Pakistan over national sovereignty, is far from the first time that elite US forces have mounted military operations on the ground in the nuclear-armed nation.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was to address parliament last night to reiterate a message driven home last week by Pakistani military chiefs - that the country would not tolerate any further breaches of sovereignty by the US or any other nation.

He was also expected to announce a parliamentary inquiry into the intelligence services' failure to detect bin Laden, who lived for five years under their noses in the garrison town of Abbottabad.

Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told senior Pakistani journalists last week that "certain red lines had been crossed" by the US military.

Several people present at that briefing have suggested the subtext of his message was that the US had crossed a line by carrying out an operation in an area where Pakistan's urban and increasingly anti-US population could bear witness to it.

The Navy SEAL operation in Bajaur Agency was first reported by The New York Times in 2008, which cited a former top CIA official as confirming the mission.

A former ISI station chief for Pakistan's Pashtun-dominated northwest and tribal areas from 2001 to 2003, Asad Munir, yesterday also confirmed the 2006 operation took place, and was different to the drone strike on a suspected Zawahiri compound in January of the same year that is said to have killed up to 25 civilians.

"They flew over in helicopters, people came out on ladders and searched the compound, found nothing, and flew back," Brigadier Munir told The Australian.

"It was known by the ISI, but not by the media, and never made it to the newspapers. It was a very low-profile operation, but I have no doubt that it occurred."

He said yet another operation occurred in 2008 just over the Afghan border in South Waziristan, in which three US special operations officers raided a madrassa suspected of being used as a base from which insurgents were firing on coalition forces.

Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former chief secretary of the northwest frontier province and Tribal Areas Commissioner, also confirmed the fact that last week's Navy SEALs raid was not the first on Pakistani soil.

What makes the bin Laden raid notable is that it was successful in getting the target - and it was as high profile a target as can be imagined. When the other raids didn't get their targets, the teams involved were able to slip away.

Moreover, it appears that the ISI and military were caught flat footed over the bin Laden raid, as compared to closer coordination in the prior raids. Considering how the ISI and military have their fingers in every aspect of the Pakistani economy and security apparatus, it's hard for some to believe that the ISI or military didn't know that bin Laden was living in Abbottabad. In many respects, the ISI and military operate in the same fashion as Iran's IRGC does - complete with its own economic support system outside that of the local economy.

The Pakistani leadership is clearly red-faced in public over the raid; and they are quick to lay blame on the US for carrying out the raid even though there are ongoing indications that a significant segment of the Pakistani public and military and ISI are predisposed to bin Laden's worldview and radicalization.

At the same time, there are now reports that the US and Pakistan had worked out a deal a decade ago that the US would go after bin Laden in Pakistan. It was a secret deal between Pervez Musharraf and President Bush. Pakistani forces would allow unilateral raids by the US to go after bin Laden or Zawahiri.

The United States repeatedly told Pakistan that Washington would send American forces into that country if it had evidence that Osama bin Laden was hiding there, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The message that the United States would not hesitate to send American operatives into Pakistan to get bin Laden was transmitted to top Pakistani officials on multiple occasions by the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, said a U.S. national security official who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information.

A former senior U.S. counter-terrorism official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was an "understanding" between Washington and Islamabad that amounted to an acknowledgment by Pakistani authorities that the United States would take unilateral action on Pakistani soil if it had intelligence on the al Qaeda leader's whereabouts.

Of course, the news of the secret deal has gotten the usual suspects in Pakistan upset. Even Musharraf originally stated that the US was in the wrong for going after bin Laden in Pakistan last week. Did anyone in the current government know about the deal, even as they were quick to blame the US for invading and violating their sovereignty. The nationalists in the Pakistani government are quick to blame the US, even though bin Laden was living under the Pakistani noses for years without anyone seeming to know anything about it.

Now, it's possible that Musharraf didn't inform the current Pakistani government or that the US didn't reiterate that understanding, but I find that hard to believe. Instead, it's much more likely that the Pakistanis wanted to find fault with the US actions because it shows just how little the US trusts the Pakistani ISI and military to keep a secret - and the possibility that the ISI/military could have been tipping off key al Qaeda/Taliban to avoid being captured/killed in these raids.

The question of Pakistani sovereignty is an odd one when one further considers that the Pakistanis can barely control their own territory - the frontier provinces are autonomous and Pakistani military forces operate there at their own risk because of Taliban and al Qaeda threats.

Meanwhile, bin Laden's son, Omar, is busy comparing the US raid to kill his father to an assassination and that Osama was denied some form of due process.

“When Osama did not resist, why wasn’t he arrested? After being killed, why didn’t the family get to identify him? Why was he buried at sea when that is against their Islamic beliefs?”

The questions were posted by Jean Sasson, an American writer, on her blog on Tuesday. Sasson helped bin Laden’s son Omar bin Laden write the memoir, “Growing Up bin Laden.” He has publicly denounced his father’s terrorism, but is still seeking answers to the circumstances around his death.

Sasson provided a further statement to the New York Times from Omar bin Laden, that said, “We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems ... justice must be seen to be done.”

Cry me a river - bin Laden declared war on the US; he never gave any of his thousands of victims due process; and that he wasn't armed when the raid happened doesn't detract from the fact that he was a mass murderer who was essentially caught with his pants down (lacking weapons and inadequate security) when the SEAL team killed him.

Who Will Follow Bin Laden as Head of Al Qaeda?

While much of the speculation as to who will assume the role as top terrorist in al Qaeda has fallen on Ayman al Zawahiri, there appears to be rumblings over whether he is sufficiently charismatic enough to keep the group going and whether he can get along with other terrorists.

Other possibilities include Anwar al Awlaki, whose followers have carried out several high profile attempted attacks in recent years.

Yet, there's one figure who hasn't quite made the headlines in the US who may be in a position to take over al Qaeda. He's a former Pakistani commando known as Ilyas Kashmiri.

An elusive figure who often wears heavily tinted aviator glasses, Kashmiri remains at large and active in plotting new attacks against the West, U.S. officials say. It was Kashmiri who, according to U.S. officials, was the key figure behind a suspected plot for multiple attacks in European cities, patterned after the 2008 Mumbai terror strike, which led to a widely publicized State Department travel advisory in October.

While Ayman al-Zawahri remains the “presumed” successor to bin Laden, the longtime al-Qaida deputy is deeply unpopular in some circles and his elevation is by no means guaranteed, a senior U.S. official told reporters this weekend. If al-Zawahri doesn’t make it, Kashmiri may emerge as the dark horse in the ensuing power struggle, the official told NBC on Monday.

“His star has been on the rise for the last several years,” said the official. “He would have to be on the al-Qaida short list.”

Kashmiri was at one point a member of the Pakistani military, serving as a commando in a Special Services Group that was once tasked with training Afghan mujahedeen to fight the Soviets.

He was later reassigned to train Kashmiri fighters against the Indians, but broke from the Pakistani army and joined a terrorist group — called Harakat-ul Jihad-i-Islami, or HUJI (“Movement of Islamic Holy War”) — that has been closely aligned with al-Qaida.


So far, U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped on whether they have found evidence in bin Laden’s compound that shows direct contacts between the now deceased al-Qaida leader and Kashmiri. But hints of such links — and of Kashmiri’s interest in mass casualty terror plots — are contained in U.S. court documents.

While Kashmiri was originally trained and worked closely with the Pakistani military and security services, he turned on Pervez Musharaf's regime and even targeted him in assassination attempts. His cadre of terrorists have carried out attacks in Pakistan, India, Kashmir, and plotted against the West, including a plot against Jyllands Posten for their running cartoons depicting Mohammad.

He's known to use the frontier provinces of Pakistan as his base of operations.

The US labeled him a specially designated global terrorist in August 2010, which puts him in the same ranks as the ex-bin Laden and Zawahiri. The US has attempted to carry out UAV airstrikes against him in the past, and have come close on several occasions, particularly after capturing several of his top henchmen.

Depending on who to believe, one would think that al Qaeda had three spheres of operation - the strategic, military, and ideological - with bin Laden, Kashmiri, and Zawahiri running each, respectively. However, with bin Laden's death and the cache of intel gathered from his compound in Abbottabad, that thinking may have been sorely misguided. It would appear that bin Laden was in command and control over most operational and strategic thinking of the terror group, using couriers to shuttle information between him and his subordinates.

Kashmiri, being central to these discussions, therefore may be in a better position to assume the leadership role. He's got the military credibility among the Taliban and knows his way through the region better than others, including Zawahiri. He also benefits from knowing Pakistani tactics and probabilities - where and how the Pakistanis operate their security forces and military. That's invaluable in evading capture or being struck in Pakistani airstrikes.

Fallout from Bin Laden's Death and What Did Pakistan Know?

Fallout from the death of Osama bin Laden continues to ripple throughout the world. Bin Laden's burial at sea has been criticized, even though that's a far better fate than the nearly 3,000 who were murdered at the World Trade Center. Some criticize that the US was too respectful, while others claim the US was not respectful enough. To me, that says that the US got it right - and I believe that the burial at sea was necessary to eliminate any possibility that his burial site could be treated as a rallying point.

As new details of the raid continue to leak out, the real questions are being pointed in the direction of Pakistan. What did they know and when did they know that bin Laden was living large in their country?

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari submitted an op-ed in the Washington Post today in response to the US mission that killed Osama bin Laden in the town of Abbotabad, just miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Let us be frank. Pakistan has paid an enormous price for its stand against terrorism. More of our soldiers have died than all of NATO’s casualties combined. Two thousand police officers, as many as 30,000 innocent civilians and a generation of social progress for our people have been lost. And for me, justice against bin Laden was not just political; it was also personal, as the terrorists murdered our greatest leader, the mother of my children. Twice he tried to assassinate my wife. In 1989 he poured $50 million into a no-confidence vote to topple her first government. She said that she was bin Laden’s worst nightmare — a democratically elected, progressive, moderate, pluralistic female leader. She was right, and she paid for it with her life.

Some in the U.S. press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists we claimed to be pursuing. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn’t reflect fact. Pakistan had as much reason to despise al-Qaeda as any nation. The war on terrorism is as much Pakistan’s war as as it is America’s. And though it may have started with bin Laden, the forces of modernity and moderation remain under serious threat.

My government endorses the words of President Obama and appreciates the credit he gave us Sunday night for the successful operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. We also applaud and endorse the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that we must “press forward, bolstering our partnerships, strengthening our networks, investing in a positive vision of peace and progress, and relentlessly pursuing the murderers who target innocent people.” We have not yet won this war, but we now clearly can see the beginning of the end, and the kind of South and Central Asia that lies in our future.

Only hours after bin Laden’s death, the Taliban reacted by blaming the government of Pakistan and calling for retribution against its leaders, and specifically against me as the nation’s president. We will not be intimidated. Pakistan has never been and never will be the hotbed of fanaticism that is often described by the media.

Zardari is in a real tough position right now. He's got to simultaneously defend his country from claims that he was harboring al Qaeda's top dog, claiming that he was providing assistance (unidentified and uncorroborated by US officials who have studiously stated that they shared no aspects of this mission with any other country, including Pakistan), and has to be worried that the Islamists will try to topple his government because of its existing ties with the US (a belief that the government is complicit with the US even if there was no actual). Given the way that Pakistanis love their conspiracy theories (even more than the nutjobs who think Osama wasn't real, wasn't killed, or any permutation thereof), all kinds of speculation is rampant in Pakistan right now over what Pakistan's government knew and when did they know of it.

Fact is, no one really knows what the Pakistani government knew about bin Laden's location, but it is highly suspicious that he was able to live in relative comfort in a compound just yards from the country's military academy and where military personnel go to retire. It is plausible that members of the military or the ISI were complicit in keeping bin Laden's whereabouts hidden but it once again indicates the difficulty of trusting the Pakistani government to reveal key details. Those questions are being asked by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle - and they have good reason to ask those questions. Similar questions are being asked by other countries, including the UK.

Zardari is right to state that his country has been ravaged by Islamic terrorists, particularly Taliban and al Qaeda. Yet, each time the Pakistani government (whether under Zardari or his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf) cracks down, it doesn't go far enough to eliminate the threat. It does just enough - anything more and the Islamists in the Pakistani government (Parliament, military, ISI) would thwart further action.

He further claims that radical Islamist parties make up a small fraction of his government, but that overlooks those other groups that lean towards radicalism and who do not condone crackdowns against the Islamists.

Pakistan barely maintains control over the frontier provinces, which are overrun with Taliban and have hosted al Qaeda for years on end. Efforts to thwart the Taliban have met with mixed success - and the body count among Pakistani soldiers is quite high and

The country can't align itself too greatly with the US for fear of assassinations or coups to install a more Islamist government, but doing nothing allows the Islamists free reign in the frontier provinces.

The question of what Pakistan knew and who knew might be revealed in the treasure trove of intel captured by the special forces team that carried out the mission. They recovered numerous computers, hard drives, thumb drives, and other intel that can be critical to unraveling the logistical network and other contacts, as well as identifying other key members and locations. It could also shed light on other planned or contemplated targets.

Bin Laden's death may also result in a reappraisal of ongoing military operations by the ISAF in Afghanistan, including the possible withdrawal of troops earlier than 2014. I think that would be a serious mistake, considering that al Qaeda and the Taliban remain a serious threat, and allowing them safe haven is a mistake.

US Seeks To Expand Military Strikes In Pakistan

NYTimes: U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan. The US is looking at expanding raids in Pakistan to deal with the ongoing Taliban threat. It is one of the policies and hallmarks of the Obama administration that has carried out UAV airstrikes more frequently than his predecessor. However, Pakistanis aren't likely to go along with the change unless additional aid is forthcoming. It is also likely to result in additional problems for Pakistan in the frontier provinces where the Taliban maintain their safe havens.

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UPDATE:
These raids wouldn't be the UAV airstrikes we've seen in the past, but special forces operating deep behind the national boundaries of an official ally, even though Pakistan doesn't maintain strict and authoritative control over the frontier provinces. It's a sticky wicket that deserves closer scrutiny and the issue has come up numerous times in the past few years, including during the 2008 presidential campaign when then candidate Barack Obama called for invading Pakistan. Now, some of his military commanders are pushing for that very strategy to go and eradicate the Taliban threat posed by those safe havens. Pakistan has long refused to go fully after the Taliban clans that frequently cross the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the last time they made a concerted effort, the Pakistani military didn't come off very well.

This news may be an effort to spur the Pakistani government to once again take more action against the Taliban.

The Times report is most notable for a new development on the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda - the US has been backing Afghan militias that carry out cross-border raids:

Additionally, in recent years, Afghan militias backed by the C.I.A. have carried out a number of secret missions into Pakistan’s tribal areas. These operations in Pakistan by Afghan operatives, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, have been previously reported as solely intelligence-gathering operations. But interviews in recent weeks revealed that on at least one occasion, the Afghans went on the offensive and destroyed a militant weapons cache.

This latter bit may prove to be quite problematic since it shows that the US is backing groups that attack those living on the Pakistani side of the border, and Pakistan may not take kindly to such actions in their official response even if they give them a wink and nod unofficially because the Pakistani government in Islamabad can't directly deal with the Taliban or al Qaeda for fear of upsetting the Islamists who dominate the country.

UPDATE:
The Christian Science Monitor reports that NATO is denying the reports that the US wants to expand special forces operations into Pakistan.

A spokesperson for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan today rebuffed a report that senior US military officials in Afghanistan are seeking to expand raids into Pakistan’s tribal areas.

"There is absolutely no truth to reporting in The New York Times that US forces are planning to conduct ground operations into Pakistan," Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, deputy chief of staff for communication for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said in a statement from Kabul, according to Reuters.

The Los Angeles Times adds that Smith's "sharply worded statement underscored the extreme sensitivities surrounding the subject of militant sanctuaries in Pakistan."

US allies are wary of potential repercussions because their logistics are so thinly stretched and are reluctant to engage in directly fighting the Taliban - leaving those efforts up to the US. Supply lines in Pakistan have come under attack on numerous occasions in the past couple of years, destroying convoys of vehicles and equipment destined for NATO troops in Afghanistan. It is possible that the Times report was accurate, but efforts to win NATO commanders over to the idea hasn't gained traction, which is why the denial was issued.

UAV Airstrike Kills German Militants In Pakistan As Unrest Continues

A United States UAV airstrike in the Waziristan town of Mir Ali appears to have taken out a bunch of German militants. The exact number of casualties is not yet known, but it is highly unusual for such a large concentration of foreign terrorists to congregate in the area.

Pakistani intelligence officials say five German militants are believed to have been killed in an American missile strike close to the Afghan border.

The officials say the missiles hit a house in the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan region late Monday.

Two say the victims were believed to be German citizens in the region for terrorist training.

A third says they were believed to be foreigners, but gave no details.

A Reuters report said eight militants of German nationality were killed by missiles from a pilotless aircraft.

The officials spoke anonymously because their agency does not permit operatives to be named in the media.

This comes on the heels of NATO convoys to Afghanistan being repeatedly attacked in Pakistan, which has put the NATO efforts under considerable strain.

It's also on the heels of alerts in Europe over potential terror attacks. The US State Department issued warnings to those Americans visiting Europe to be vigilant (as if that isn't what people should be doing generally).

There were 21 UAV airstrikes this past September - the most for any month.

The CIA has been trying to eliminate leaders of the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban faction operating out of North Waziristan which is seen as one of the most effective forces fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan is home to a variety of militant groups, some fighting the Pakistani government, others battling U.S.-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Some militants are foreigners who have taken up the cause of holy war against the West and see North Waziristan as a safe haven or training ground.

U.S. and British alerts about possible attacks in Europe highlight concern that growing numbers of militants are going from the West to remote war zones for training in answer to al Qaeda's online call for violence.

The immediate trigger for Sunday's travel alerts was intelligence about a plot against European targets reportedly originating with a group of individuals in mountainous northern Pakistan, some of them believed to be European citizens.

Few details of the conspiracy are known. But the plot appears to be of the kind that Western officials believe poses the most significant danger today -- the use of so-called self-radicalized militants with no previous record of extremism.

This area has been the focus of military action for quite some time. Mir Ali was the scene of a major Pakistani military action in 2007, where Pakistani troops killed nearly 200 people, most of whom were terrorists, though the Pakistani forces got bloodied in the process. Quite a few of the UAV airstrikes have been directed in the vicinity of Mir Ali.

Big Fish Watch: Al Qaeda Number 3; Osama's Brother In Law Killed?

If this can be confirmed, it's a real big fish. Al Qaeda's number 3 - and who happens to be Osama Bin Laden's brother in law, was allegedly killed in the Afghan-Pakistani border region.

Al-Qaida's number three — a co-founder of the terror network and Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law — has been killed in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan, according to a statement attributed to the group that was posted on Islamist websites Monday.

The statement did not say how Shaykh Saeed, whose real name is Shaykh Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, was killed nor did it identify a successor. Saeed was also al-Qaida's financial director.

One senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity told NBC News that Saeed was killed in an attack by a missile-carrying drone aircraft.

Another official said that "in terms of counterterrorism this would be a big victory," describing Saeed as "the group's chief operating officer, with a hand in everything from finances to operational planning. He was also the organization's prime conduit to Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. He was key to al-Qaida's command and control."

How he was killed? It would appear to be a UAV airstrike.

Developing: US Officials Say Top Al Qaeda Terrorist Killed In Airstrike

The US says that they've killed a high ranking al Qaeda terrorist somewhere in Pakistan via a UAV airstrike. Pakistan denies that any such event took place. The officials wont confirm who was killed, but only that it wasn't Osama bin Laden.

A “high-ranking” al-Qaida figure was killed Thursday in an attack by a drone aircraft, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The officials did not identify who was killed, except to say that it was not al-Qaida’s supreme leader, Osama bin Laden. If the report is confirmed, it would be the first time coalition forces had killed a top al-Qaida figure in almost a year.

The officials said the killing was the result of stepped-up operations targeting al-Qaida leaders in recent weeks.

Bill Roggio at Long War Journal confirmed that the strike did take place, and that the Pakistani denials of several other strikes were inaccurate. No word on who the target was, but it was the first strikes in South Waziristan since Pakistani forces began their operations to root out Taliban elements who have been wreaking havoc in Pakistan via terror attacks against marketplaces and even against military and intel targets.

The Pakistani denials may be part of trying to maintain morale among Pakistani forces who have not yet achieved their goals along with undermining US efforts to go after top leadership in the past year in a stepped-up UAV airstrike campaign.

AP: Terrorists Now Headlined As Gangsters

The AP reports that Pakistani police engaged a bunch of terrorists and killed one and captured five others, all while seizing a bunch of suicide vests, grenades, guns, and ammunition. So, how does the AP headline this report?

Pakistani police arrest gang accused in bombing.

Police said the commandos encountered fierce resistance when they stormed the compound in the village of Kaka Khel near Peshawar, the largest city in the area and the main gateway to the Afghan border region where many al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents are based.

Militants have carried out a wave of deadly attacks in and around Peshawar in apparent retaliation for an army offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan.

Three suicide jackets as well as a number of bombs, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons were seized from the compound, regional police Chief Liaquat Ali Khan said.

He said one suspect was killed and five others arrested following a gunbattle that lasted more than two hours. A search operation for more militants continued in the area, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Peshawar.

The detained are suspected of involvement in recent bombings and other attacks not only in Peshawar but in Islamabad and its sister city of Rawalpindi, Khan said, declining to be more specific.

In the latest major attack, a team of gunmen and suicide bombers struck a mosque Friday in Rawalpindi, killing 37 people, including several senior army officers.

These aren't mere gangsters, but terrorists who are seeking to undermine the Pakistani government and pushing an Islamist agenda. They want autonomy in the frontier provinces and are aligned with the Taliban in the NWFP and Waziristan to establish and maintain safe havens there for the Taliban and their al Qaeda affiliates. The terrorists continue their war against the Pakistani government and are using an agreement between certain Taliban groups and the government to spread their ideology and operate against the government forces in the region.

The Afghan Conundrum

The US casualties in the last four months in the Afghan campaign are in part the result of more aggressive campaign to root out Taliban; we saw a similar spike in casualties during the surge in Iraq. However, those casualties are weighing heavily on the Obama Administration and their decision making process as to whether to increase troop numbers to root out the Taliban or pursue a reduced troop commitment while increasing reliance on air strikes, particularly via UAVs.

The problem is the perception of dithering by the Administration is going to lead to problems on the battlefield as the Taliban watch the news as well. They see that they may be about to outlast the US efforts and if enough casualties are imposed on US forces, Obama may go the route of limiting/curtailing any troop increase or opt to slowly reduce troop numbers in Afghanistan despite an ongoing presence of Taliban/al Qaeda in Afghanistan and along the Afghan/Pak border.

At the same time, the Pakistanis are continuing their military efforts in the frontier provinces and taking casualties, even as they're dishing it out to the Taliban.

The base problem with the Obama Administration is that they're looking to put political expediency ahead of strategic and tactical military concerns. Even if that isn't their intention, the appearance of just that is strong enough to warrant concern and question the Administration's commitment to the Afghan campaign.

Moreover, it will be interesting to see how the Administration addresses the Afghan government following Abdullah's dropping out from the runoff election. The Administration was quick to accept the bogus election results in Iran with a bunch of tyrannical mullahs who had no problem slaughtering opposition members marching in the street demanding that the vote be recounted. Here, what will the Administration do? Will they shape their Afghan policy and curtail efforts or will they accept the disputed results and work towards improving the situation?

If they curtail the efforts and somehow use the disputed elections as a wedge, it would be extremely troublesome particularly because the Administration would be pursuing a strategy that undermines our military efforts, distances ourselves from our allies, and once again shows that the Administration is more willing to deal with our enemies than to stand by our allies, even when our allies aren't quite up to snuff on matters like elections.

Islamic Terrorists Again Strike At Pakistan's Nuclear Infrastructure

A suicide bomber struck at a facility linked to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, killing seven people. That's in addition to another terror attack in Pakistan killing 17 aboard a bus that was heading to a wedding. Just yesterday, a Pakistani general was killed by a suicide bomber.

These attacks should be unsettling, and rightfully so.

Pakistan has a significant nuclear arsenal, and they are on the front lines against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The terrorists have again struck at the heart of Pakistan's nuclear program; this is the fourth time in the past three years that they have carried out successful attacks against sites linked to the Pakistani nuclear weapons program. The Karma Air Station where the latest attack occurred is where unassembled nuclear weapons are maintained, and can be assembled for use within hours.

The previous attacks include the following:

... an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly.

All this news has been seriously underreported by the West, and the seriousness of the situation underscores the problems in Afghanistan as well. Al Qaeda and Taliban elements continue to operate largely with impunity from Pakistani territory inside the frontier provinces, and engage in attacks against Afghanistan regularly.

The Pakistani military has started making increasing efforts to go after the Taliban in South Waziristan and the Taliban claim that the latest attack was retribution for the continuing operations. The Pakistani military has to get a handle on the situation, if only to further secure their nuclear program from additional attacks.

Taliban Declare War On Pakistan

They may not have used those precise words, but their threat to Pakistanis to flee cities, followed by multiple explosions all over the country, following still more deadly blasts in the past two days, and there's little else can call it but an all-out war between the Taliban and Pakistan.

Three bombs detonated in Peshawar, north of Pakistan’s capital, and one in Dera Ismail Khan, in the country’s troubled west, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens.

The strikes were deadly reminders of the potency of militants in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed American ally that is fighting a war against the Taliban in its north and west. Pakistan is central to American policy in this region, as militants in its lawless tribal areas cross the border into Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting a similar insurgency.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a young Taliban commander and lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that more attacks would follow the one in Lahore. Hakimullah Mehsud, who spoke from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the Lahore bombing.

“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities, as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he said in a phone call to Reuters.

He said that the Lahore attack was a response to Pakistan’s recent military campaign against the Taliban in Swat, an area north of the capital, which was overrun by militants earlier this year.

“We have been looking for a target from the day the military launched the operation in Swat,” Mr. Mehsud said.

The real question isn't whether the Pakistani government can stop the Taliban. It's whether the Pakistani people will continue to tolerate the carnage and rise up against the Taliban themselves (akin the to the Anbar Awakening). Pakistan's governments have played a delicate dance between appeasement and crackdown, and right now, they are paying dearly for that cycle of violence.

The government continues fighting the Taliban in Swat, and the Taliban's latest grievances are that the Pakistanis are trying to defend themselves outside of the frontier provinces, which the Pakistani governments have treated as semi-autonomous for much of Pakistan's history. It has been a major mistake on their part to do so, as the Taliban have used their control to spread the Islamist doctrine and their control now runs into Pakistan proper like tentacles of a hydra.

The Taliban aren't going to stop until they are stopped. That threatens not only Pakistan, but Afghanistan and the rest of South Asia, including India. Putting out a list of most wanted Taliban is a meager start, but until the regular army gets in the game and seeks to impose Pakistani control over all of Pakistan up to the Afghan border, this war will continue.

Barbarians Inside the Gates

The Taliban engage in barbaric practices, and the news coming out of the frontier provinces and nearby provinces fully inside Pakistan are truly horrific. The Taliban are misogynists, and they treat women worse than chattel. They slaughter people on a whim, and even those Muslims who initially welcomed these thugs with open arms are horrified at what has resulted.

When Taliban fighters first entered Karim's village last month, he recounted, they said they had come to bring peace and Islamic law, or sharia, to Swat. But the next day, two of the fighters dragged a policeman out of his truck and tried to slit his throat. Horrified, a crowd rushed over, shouting and trying to shield the officer. The fighters let him go, but the incident confirmed the villagers' worst suspicions.

"We all said to each other, what sort of people have come here? And what kind of sharia is this? Cutting off people's heads has nothing to do with Islam," recounted Karim, 55, a bus driver. "The people were filled with great rage, and great fear."

Authorities in North-West Frontier Province said that with the conflict intensifying, they expect half a million people to flee the once-bucolic Swat region near the Afghan border, much of which is now occupied by heavily armed militants. Officials announced Tuesday that they plan to open six refugee camps in the safer nearby districts of Swabi and Mardan, but until then, many who leave home to escape the violence are facing the arduous task of finding their own shelter.

The reports also show just how reluctant the Zardari government is in engaging in a proper offensive against the Taliban. They're not sending the regular army against the Taliban, but rather the paramilitary forces, which have gotten bloodied on a regular basis and who have regularly lost ground against the Taliban, who are asserting dominion over Swat and nearby provinces outside the frontier.

The Pakistani government claims that they are busy killing Taliban as they find them in Swat, but the reports are grim. Taliban are patrolling large areas of Swat and have pushed deep inside Pakistan proper.

Reports from Swat are confused as the military claims that they've killed dozens of Taliban, including suicide bombers, while other reports suggest that they were civilians attempting to flee.

It's an absolute mess, and it shows no signs of improving. The cause for all this misery; years of doing nothing to stop the Taliban from laying the groundwork in the Frontier Provinces and inside Pakistan proper that would seek to usurp power from the Pakistani government and traditional power brokers. The government in Islamabad, including Musharraf and Zardari, regularly engaged in crackdowns and appeasement, which offered the Taliban the insight they needed to simply outlast any sustained effort to stop the Taliban.

Each deal that the Pakistani government cut was one deal more that the Taliban would break knowing that another deal would be forthcoming. Each successive deal would further erode Islamabad's position, and the refusal to send the military to crush the Taliban has repercussions throughout the region.

The Obama Administration is engaging in wishful thinking if it believes that the Pakistani government and the Afghan government are going to crack down and crush the Taliban, even with US assistance. The Pakistanis lack the political will to do so, which means that no matter how much the US or Afghan governments pledge to do so, the safe havens in the frontier provinces will be off limits. It will take the Pakistanis to do what must be done, and their reluctance has brought the region to the precipice.

Pakistan Caves To Taliban; Islamists Win Again

Pakistan is busy turning itself over to the Taliban in bits and pieces and Sharia will be the law of the land before long.

Pakistan simply couldn't defeat the Taliban after six months of fighting in Swat, so they've decided that it's just not worth the fight to stop the Islamists and the supporters of al Qaeda from using Pakistani territory from which to carry out their attacks against Afghanistan or the rest of the region and beyond.

The Taliban aren't going to be satisfied with just their corner of the country (frontier provinces and Swat). They're going to want more, sensing weakness from the Zardari government. That bodes poorly for the US/NATO operations in Afghanistan as the Taliban and al Qaeda use Pakistan's frontier provinces for refuge, even as the US UAV airstrikes continue to take out top leaders and al Qaeda thugs much to the chagrin of the Pakistani government in Islamabad.

Mullah Dastagir, the shadow governor of Badghis province, was killed in the Sunday night airstrike in the Balamurghab district along with his brother Mullah Nabi Jan, another known Taliban commander named Mawlawi Hayatullah, and five other Taliban fighters. US and Afghan Army forces called in the airstrike after surrounding Dastagir's compound. Dastagir commanded more than 300 full-time Taliban fighters and another 300 part-time fighters.

Dastagir's rise to power in Badghis was facilitated by an order issued last year by President Hamid Karzai. Dastagir was released from National Security Directorate custody after the Directorate received an order from Karzai in September 2008. Karzai was responding to the appeals of local tribal leaders in Badghis, who appear to have been coerced by the Taliban.

Dastagir was nominated as the shadow governor for Badghis by a Taliban shura in October 2008. The Taliban appoint a shadow government in the provinces when it is determined the Taliban presence is sufficient. He quickly exacted revenge for his capture with the deadly November ambush on an Afghan Army resupply column north of the Balamurghab district center. The attack, which was purportedly led by Dastagir, led to a three-hour battle that resulted in 13 Afghan Army soldiers killed, 11 soldiers wounded, and 16 others missing. Scores of vehicles were torched and destroyed and others were stolen by the Taliban raiders.

The Taliban are sensing weakness and disarray in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and in the US and are hoping to exploit this to their own ends.

India is right to be concerned, especially after the Pakistani government admitted that the Mumbai bombings/attacks were planned from inside Pakistan.

Friday in Pakistan With Zardari

It doesn't have quite the ring of Tuesdays With Morrie, but it will have to do.

Asif Ali Zardari is going to be speaking to the Pakistani parliament for the first time this weekend since becoming President of Pakistan. He's got plenty on his plate with the Taliban and Islamists running rampant and having to deal with the dicey issue of al Qaeda and Taliban attacks into Pakistan followed by US airstrikes and possible ground actions against al Qaeda strongholds in the NWFP and Warizistan. The Pakistani government has been quite vocal about attacking US forces should they enter Pakistani territory, but one could only wish for such a strong reaction to the Taliban's and Islamists' actions inside Pakistan.

For the Americans, such raids and airstrikes are meant to disrupt the possibility of future 9/11 style attacks originating or planned within the safe havens of Warizistan, the NWFP, as well as improving security along the Afghan/Pakistani border region in general.

We're still in the middle of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, and we once again have seen a spate of bombings. Bombers detonated a bomb at a school near Quetta, killing at least five people. That's on the heels of another explosion in Islamabad that killed seven people, though the circumstances of that explosion are unclear. Some suggest that it was a gas cylinder. Other sources claim it was a gas leak. Authorities aren't treating it as a terror attack though. Still, every time there's an explosion of some sort, the first thought is to a terror attack (and most incidents in Pakistan are indeed terror attacks).

A much more substantial attack was thwarted when tribesmen thwarted a Taliban attempt to kidnap 300 students. Two terrorists blew themselves up rather than be captured.

Two suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Upper Dir town on Thursday after residents foiled their attempt to take 300 schoolchildren hostage, police said.

The men entered into the town from Swat valley but people from the area chased them away, local police officer Johar Ali told AFP. They took refuge in a school building then and tried to take students hostage, local news agencies said, but police and villagers forced them to flee from there as well.

Two of them then tried to take refuge in a forest where an exchange of gunfire took place, and later detonated the explosives strapped to their bodies, Johar Ali said. The state-run APP news agency said a third man fled, but Online said he was arrested.

“Showing extreme courage and boldness”, the residents of a village in Upper Dir district “foiled attempt of the armed militants to take hostage around 300 students of a school and successfully freed the students” after a fierce gunbattle, said an APP report about the incident.

Meanwhile, also of concern to Zardari is the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Muslims leaving mosques in the disputed Kashmir engaged in rock-throwing and rioting had to be dispersed with tear gas. At least 50 were injured, including many police. This isn't the first time that's happened either, and tensions remain high along the Line of Control.

Thank The NYT If Terrorists Strike From Pakistan

The situation in Pakistan was bad enough prior to the New York Times revealing that the Bush Administration apparently approved secret missions to go after Taliban and al Qaeda operating in Pakistan's lawless border regions including Warizistan and the NWFP.

That report meant that the Pakistani government had even less room in which to operate and claim plausible deniability over the airstrikes and missions that have taken out countless terrorists. Now, the Pakistanis have to look like they're protecting Pakistani territory from the US. Thus, we get reports such as this:

Firing by Pakistani troops forced two U.S. military helicopters to turn back to Afghanistan after they crossed into Pakistani territory early on Monday, Pakistani security officials said.

The incident took place near Angor Adda, a village in the tribal region of South Waziristan where U.S. commandos in helicopters raided a suspected al Qaeda and Taliban camp earlier this month.

"The U.S. choppers came into Pakistan by just 100 to 150 meters at Angor Adda. Even then our troops did not spare them, opened fire on them and they turned away," said one security official.

The U.S. and Pakistani military both denied that account, but Angor Adda villagers and officials supported it.

Pakistan is a crucial U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, and its support is key to the success of Western forces trying to stabilize Afghanistan. But Washington has become impatient over Islamabad's response to the threat from al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal regions on the border.

The situation is such that you've got the Pakistani high commissioner to the UK claiming that the situation may increase the likelihood of terror attacks in the UK. Take that as a not so subtle threat that if the UK and other countries don't pressure the US into stopping attacks on the terrorists in Pakistan's lawless border regions, terrorists (freelancers or affiliated with al Qaeda) may launch further attacks against the UK.

The US plans on continuing operations deep inside areas populated by Taliban elements in Afghanistan, but the US commander noted that if the militants escape into Pakistan, a new kind of war could erupt. The fact is that the Taliban have been using the border as a get out of bombing range card. It's well past time that the card was revoked, and the Pakistani government is struggling to come up with some kind of response that satisfied both the Islamist elements and those who see the threat that the Taliban and al Qaeda represent.

As anyone who has been following the situation in Pakistan could attest, it simply isn't possible to do both at the same time - you get a crackdown followed by appeasement - a cycle of violence that will not end because the Taliban and al Qaeda take advantage of the situation at every turn.

Pakistan's Crisis Continues

Pakistanis in the Taliban infested areas of South Warizistan claim that US helicopters and soldiers attacked targets and captured terrorists/Taliban. There are several accounts of the attack:

The initial report from a Geo TV correspondent indicated the casualties were taken after US helicopters launched missiles at three homes in the Barmal area of Angorada late at night.

The report later changed when the correspondent claimed the helicopters landed and troops dismounted, who then began searching homes. One witness told The Associated Press that "American and Afghan soldiers starting firing" on one family outside of their home. Soldiers then entered the home and others, and killed fifteen people, including women and children. The raid was reported to have occurred in the village of Musa Nikow.

The Pakistani military confirmed an attack occurred in the region, AP reported but did not provide details. Two anonymous Pakistani intelligence officials said the attack occurred, and claimed 19 were killed. The US military in Afghanistan said its forces were not involved, and the US embassy in Pakistan did not comment.

Since Musharraf has been sidelined, the tempo of attacks against the Taliban and al Qaeda in the NWFP and Warizistan have increased. That would help explain why the latest assassination attempt, this time against the Pakistani Prime Minister, occurred.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was not in the car at the time of the attack on the main road from the airport in Islamabad.

The motorcade was on its way to pick him up after he landed back in the capital following a trip to the eastern city of Lahore.

His vehicle was hit by at least two bullets. That's following an assassination attempt against US diplomat Lynne Tracy, while heading to her office in Peshawar.

Starting the Roundup

In the wake of this week's brazen Taliban prison break, releasing hundreds of Taliban thugs and hundreds of other prisoners, the Afghan and coalition forces have to redouble efforts to go after those they had already captured at least once. It may be a while before all are accounted for, but there will be no extended stay in prison for some:

Afghan and coalition forces killed more than 15 insurgents and captured five while searching for militants who escaped in a daring jail-break last week, the U.S. military said Sunday.

Militants used explosive-laden trucks to destroy the walls of the Afghan prison.

Officials have not yet confirmed whether the insurgents who were killed or captured in the Saturday raid in Kandahar province were part of the nearly 400 Taliban militants who escaped from a Kandahar prison on Friday.

A U.S. military statement said the insurgents, who were holed up in a farming compound west of Rawonay, fired at troops who then retaliated with an air strike.

Authorities continued to search for the escaped prisoners Sunday. Afghan security forces have said looking for them will be tough in some areas, if not impossible in others. The Taliban is entrenched in the region, which is replete with militants' hideouts. The militants may have gone to two regions of Kandahar province with a large Taliban presence -- Maiwand and Zherai districts.

Afghan Leader Hamid Karzai warns that he will send Afghan forces into Pakistan to go after the Taliban thugs who have been causing Afghanistan so many problems.

He said that when militants crossed over from Pakistan to kill Afghans and coalition troops, his nation had the right to retaliate in "self-defence".

Mr Karzai's remarks came two days after Taleban fighters attacked an Afghan jail, freeing hundreds of prisoners.

Pakistan denies providing a safe haven for the Taleban or other militants.

Mr Karzai has long pleaded for Pakistan and international forces to confront militants in Pakistan but has not before threatened to send troops over the border.

The Taliban and al Qaeda have long used the lawless border regions to evade capture and attacks from across the border. Pakistan's government in Islamabad has always had a hands off approach to the border provinces, so for them to claim that they aren't a safe haven is just word play. Those border provinces are a part of Pakistan whether they like it or not, even if the Pakistani government wants to treat them otherwise.

Predator Hellfire Strikes Again; Al Qaeda and Taliban Most Affected

The US launched another Hellfire airstrike against targets inside Pakistan from a Predator UAV. They successfully targeted a big fish in the Taliban, who also happens to be a high level liason with al Qaeda.

The attacked killed 12 people at a not-so-safe house in Pakistan. Among the 12 were foreign fighters, which is a key word used to describe al Qaeda, who are not indigenous to the region.

It's amazing how quickly Taliban thugs will rush to the microphone to claim that women and children were killed in the airstrikes. I'm surprised that they didn't mention that it was a wedding celebration as they sometimes do.

PESHAWAR: At least a dozen militants, including foreign fighters, were killed on Wednesday in a suspected United States missile strike on two houses in the Damadola area of Bajaur Agency, a senior security official said. Two missiles, apparently fired by a US drone aircraft, demolished a house and a compound used by suspected Al Qaeda militants, the official, requesting anonymity, told AFP. Two large blasts were heard around 8pm. Residents said they saw drones flying in the area beforehand, AP reported. They said that Taliban militants cordoned off the site soon after the attack. Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar told Daily Times by phone that Taliban commander Maulvi Obaidullah’s house had been targeted. He said most of the house’s residents, including women and children, were killed.

The airstikes came on the heels of a prisoner swap between Pakistan and the Taliban/terrorists in the NWFP.

The local Taliban aren't going to let anyone near the house, lest they find out just exactly who got dispatched by Hellfire.

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