50 militants held in Waziristan: Army

* Military spokesman says Chaghmalai area completely cleared of militants

WANA: Troops captured 50 Islamist militants in an operation in South Waziristan, a day after killing dozens of rebels in the area, the military said on Saturday.

Troops also recovered 10 bodies of the rebels from the Chaghmalai area in South Waziristan, which was scene of a major clash on Friday in which an estimated 30 militants were killed, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

“Security forces launched an operation in the Chaghmalai area last night and captured 40 militants,” he told AFP.

“The village has been completely cleared of the militants,” he said.

Security forces also launched a search operation in Ladah town and arrested 10 militants, including some of their local commanders, the spokesman said.

The clash in Chaghmalai erupted after militants ambushed a convoy of security forces with rockets and small arms. The military said an hour-long firefight in the area left 20 to 30 fighters dead and four soldiers wounded.

Troops fought off a “large number” of insurgents who surrounded and attacked Ladah Fort on Friday, killing 50 to 60 of the attackers, the army said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the army also pounded a suspected hideout in neighbouring North Waziristan with artillery killing a man and wounding two people after a rocket attack on their base overnight.

Suspected Islamic militants launched a barrage of 14 rockets on a military base in Razmak town in the lawless tribal region late Friday, a security official told AFP on Saturday.

Troops retaliated and several houses were hit in Makeen town killing a man and wounding a girl and another local man, the official, asking not to be named, said.

Residents said several families began shifting to Miranshah, the main town in the rugged terrain, amid tensions in the region. afp

‘Talks possible with ‘impartial’ Musharraf’

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has said his party could talk to President Pervez Musharraf if he guarantees impartiality and fair elections.

Talking to BBC radio on Saturday, he said he did not expect the caretaker government to hold a fair vote. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif did not hold a personal grudge against President Musharraf and only wanted the rule of law in Pakistan, he added.

Shahbaz said the PML-N would talk to Musharraf if he stopped supporting “the King’s party”. Only free elections could ensure Pakistan’s integrity, he said, and political leaders would have to give up personal interests in favour of national ones.

Online news agency quoted him as saying that Punjab would have to assume a larger responsibility than other provinces to keep Pakistan united. daily times monitor

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Hezbollah forced Israel to retreat: Nasrallah


BEIRUT, Jan 19: Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his militant group had the body parts of Israeli soldiers abandoned on the battlefield as he appeared in public on Saturday for the first time in more than a year.

“We have the heads, the hands, the feet and even a nearly intact cadavre from the head down to the pelvis,” he said in a live video broadcast that followed his surprise appearance in his stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut to commemorate Ashura.

“What did the Israeli army say to the family of this soldier and what remains did they give them?” he asked.

Speaking about his group’s war with the Jewish state in 2006, he claimed Hezbollah had forced Israel to beat a quick retreat and warned that his group stood ready for a new conflict.

“If Israel launches a new war against Lebanon, we promise them a war that will change the face of the entire region,” he said.

Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers in July 2006 led to the 34-day war that killed more than 1,200 civilians in Lebanon, a third of them children, as well as 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

The Jewish state failed in both its stated aims for launching the war: to stop rocket fire on northern Israel and to recover the two soldiers.

In October, Israel handed over the bodies of two Hezbollah militants and a prisoner in exchange for the remains of a drowned Israeli civilian, who was washed up on the Lebanese coast, and information on a missing airman.

Nasrallah in his speech to tens of thousands of supporters slammed US President George W. Bush’s Middle East tour that ended on Wednesday and his bid to convince Arab leaders that Iran posed a threat with its nuclear programme.

“Bush wants to convince our rulers and people that Iran is the enemy, that Iran poses a danger and a threat, and that Israel is a brother,” the black-turbaned Nasrallah told the crowd.

He urged Arab states to address Bush’s “Satanic visions” in the Middle East and to remain committed to the armed resistance.

Surrounded by dozens of bodyguards, Nasrallah earlier walked through the Shia suburbs before being whisked away to deliver his speech.

The crowd of men, women and children carrying yellow Hezbollah flags cheered him on as he walked by and chanted “God, protect Nasrallah,” and “Death to America, Death to Israel”.

They beat their chests and backs in a ritual commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station said one million people had turned out for the event.

Nasrallah has been Israel’s public enemy number one since his Iranian- and Syrian-backed militant group fought a deadly month-long war against the Jewish state in the summer of 2006.

His last public appearance was at a massive “victory” rally in the southern suburbs in September 2006 in the wake of the war against Israel during which he went into hiding.

Nasrallah’s appearance on Saturday came amid high tension in Lebanon which has been without a president for nearly two months because of a long-running crisis between the Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Although both sides agree on the candidacy of the army chief, General Michel Sleiman, they are at loggerheads over the make-up of the future government.

Hezbollah insists that the opposition be granted a third of the seats in a new government so it can have veto power.

Nasrallah in his speech criticised Arab leaders who have been pushing an Arab League plan to end the crisis, saying they should refrain from giving lessons about democracy.

“I find it strange that Arab leaders speak about ... democracy when their own regimes know nothing about it,” he said, while reiterating that his group supported the Arab League plan.

—AFP

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

US to ship 500 mine-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan


CHARLESTON, Jan 19: The US military plans to ship 500 roadside bomb-resistant vehicles to Afghanistan amid a reinforcement of 3,200 extra US troops to be deployed to fight Taliban militants.

While the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles remain a top priority for Iraq, where US soldiers face frequent attacks from armour-piercing explosives, more MRAPs will be sent to Afghanistan, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“I think we are going to send more MRAPs to Afghanistan,” Gates said on Friday as he toured a military factory where every day 50 of those vehicles are equipped with electronic equipment.

But the defence chief emphasized that Iraq, where nearly 4,000 US soldiers have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion, is still “the first priority”.—AFP

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Afghan artillery shells land in Waziristan

MIRAMSHAH, Jan 19: Several artillery shells fired from across the Afghan side landed near Ghulam Khan check post in North Waziristan on Friday night.

Officials said that some people fired rockets on a security post in the adjacent Khost province of Afghanistan late night.

The Afghan forces retaliated and at least 10 artillery shells landed near the Ghulam Khan check post.

On Friday night, militants attacked security forces in the Razmak sub-division of North Waziristan.

More than 15 rockets were fired at the base.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Israel strikes Gaza amid supply fears


GAZA CITY, Jan 19: Israel kept up its strikes against Gaza militants on Saturday, killing at least two in a new raid, as its lockdown of the impoverished Palestinian territory started to take its toll on residents.

A pre-dawn air strike north of Gaza City killed two fighters of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas which has ruled the increasingly isolated territory since seizing power seven months ago, medics said. A second strike there left no casualties.

Israel has escalated operations in Gaza, killing at least 36 militants since Tuesday in the biggest flare-up of violence since the Islamist movement took power. Hamas has launched about 200 rockets into southern Israel in the same period, lightly wounding more than 10 people.

On Thursday, Israel announced it would close all crossings into and out of Gaza for several days to all but essential humanitarian aid, intensifying its almost two-year siege of the territory aimed at stemming rocket fire.

A senior official from the UN agency for refugees, which on Friday was prevented from bringing in a shipment of humanitarian aid, warned about the impact of the closures on the deepening poverty in the coastal strip.

“At the UN we only provide 61 per cent of the daily calories for the people that are relying on us,” John Ging, the UNRWA’s Gaza director, told AFP.

More than a million people in Gaza — two-thirds of the territory’s total population — rely on the UNRWA food system, which Mr Ging warned only provides basic staples such as oil, lentils, and rice.

“We have stocks of food for two months in our warehouses but we must plan for interruptions to crossings, and the demand will continue to escalate if the crossings remain closed.”

As news of the new measures spread, residents across the Gaza Strip stocked up on diesel fuel, leaving several service stations empty. “We have already run out of diesel and we can only supply gasoline for two hours a day,” gas station owner Ibrahim al-Berberi told AFP. “The supply that comes to us is not enough, because it runs out the same day we receive it.”An European Union official involved in fuel shipments to Gaza, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said supplies were halted on Friday and that Israel would reassess the closures on Monday.

Meanwhile, the head of Gaza’s power authority warned that there was only enough fuel to run its sole power station -- already operating at less than half its capacity -- for another day.

“The fuel supply today (Saturday) is only sufficient for one day and tomorrow at 100 am (0800 GMT), if more fuel is not allowed in, we will see the supply to the power station cut off,” Kanaan Obeid told AFP.

The station currently provides around 45 megawatts of power, with another 120 coming from Israel and 17 from Egypt. Power cuts have grown increasingly common in recent weeks in Gaza, where many residents rely on generators.

“The power supply to people and to the vital services are being interrupted quite severely at the moment because the power plant is only working at 45 per cent of its capacity,” Mr Ging said.

Hamas called on Egypt on Saturday to open the Rafah crossing along its border with Gaza -- the only crossing that bypasses Israel -- to allow the transport of “basic goods necessary for the continuation of life in Gaza”.

Spokesman Taher al-Nunu condemned the “Israeli occupation’s hardening of its unjust siege against our people and its preventing the entry of medicine, food, and fuel in a way that threatens the lives of 1.5 million people.”

The new lockdown has prompted an international outcry, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressing concern about the closures and calling for an immediate end to the escalating violence in the region.

“Of particular concern today, in addition to the upsurge in violence, is the decision by Israel to close the crossing points in between Gaza and Israel used for the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” his press office said.

The new escalation comes just over a week after a visit by US President George W. Bush to Israel and the occupied West Bank to encourage revived peace talks aimed at creating a Palestinian state by Jan 2009.

But Arab League chief Amr Mussa on Saturday “strongly condemned” Israel’s military attacks on Gaza and warned that the ongoing violence and the deteriorating humanitarian situation could derail the new talks.—AFP

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Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Troops claim gains in Swat


By Hameedullah Khan

MINGORA, Jan 19: Security forces on Saturday took control of more strategic locations in upper Swat, pushing the militants to snow-capped mountainous areas of Kabal and Peuchar tehsils.

Over 20 militants were arrested and explosives, ammunition, vehicles and Pakistani passports seized as the security forces resumed a search and cordon drive against the hardcore militants loyal to cleric Maulana Fazlullah in Loe Namal area on Saturday morning.

However, there was no report of any casualty. Officials and residents said law-enforcement agencies personnel swept the area without any resistance as the militants had left before their arrival. Only 10 of the militants were apprehended by the troops.

The militants had regrouped in upper Swat after fleeing the settled areas and established their headquarters in Loe Namal from where they were launching attacks on government installations.

In a raid in Khwazakhela the military forces arrested 10 more alleged militants and took them to undisclosed locations. The troops raided a workshop where equipment for the maulana’s and 35 other FM radio stations were stated to have been prepared.

The houses of some close aides of Maulana Fazlullah were set on fire by the security forces with the help of local people.

Eight to 10 mortar rounds fired from Dir landed outside Razmak camp, said an ISPR release. The troops responded with 12.7mm guns and 81mm mortar fire. No casualty or damage was reported.

District Police Officer Waqif Khan told a press conference in Mingora that the law-enforcement agencies had achieved the primary target of the military operation in Swat by clearing the valley of militants and establishing the government’s writ.

He said the valley would soon be cleared of the remaining handful of militants and peace would return to the area soon.

The DPO, while displaying recovered weapons, said 2,500kg of explosives, a huge quantity of ball bearings, six guns, two grenades, 13 vehicles of various government departments, dozens of wireless sets and communications system had been seized from various hideouts of the militants and a mosque in Loe Namal area.

Curfew will be relaxed in Swat district excluding Namal, Chuprial and Bariam Bridge areas of Matta tehsil. Life as a whole remained peaceful in Swat as all shops were open and traffic plied on the roads.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Army moves in amid deadlock over route in Hangu

By Abdul Sami Paracha

KOHAT, Jan 19: Army took control of the Hangu district after talks between two religious communities failed to resolve a row over the route of an Ashura procession on Saturday.

NWFP IGP Mohammad Sharif Virk, Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir and Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor held separate meetings with the representatives of both communities to arrive at an understanding but left here for Peshawar without any decision.

The army took control of the city and the Frontier Constabulary was deployed at all exit and entry points.

However, a jirga was still in progress in the office of the Hangu Superintendent of Police to resolve the issue to finalise the procession route. Three members were representing each community in talks with Hangu SP Ghulam Mohammad.

The Sunni side was represented by Aslam Farooqui of the Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat, former MNA Mohammad Afzal and Haji Mehrban while the Shia side was represented by Malik Jamal Hassan, Syed Wasih Syed and Malik Noor Jaffar

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Jets bomb Militant positions in Waziristan


By Our Correspondents

WANA/TANK, Jan 19: Fighter planes on Saturday bombed several suspected militant locations and security forces claimed that they had found 10 bodies of assailants and captured 40 others in Chagmalai, South Waziristan, on Friday night.

Local people said that PAF planes had dropped bombs on different positions in Laddah, Spika Raghzai, Gorogoray and Asman Manza, causing damages to a number of houses and infrastructure. Heavy artillery shelling was also reported in other areas of the troubled region.

Officials claimed that an outpost of militants in Laddah was targeted. The building of a government degree college was also bombed in the same area. However, no casualty was reported.

Two houses in Laddah were damaged and there were reports that a facility of militants had also been targeted. Fighter planes made several sorties and dropped bombs on militant positions. Security forces also fired artillery shells and pounded positions in Laddah sub-division on Friday night.

The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that 10 bodies of militants had been recovered and 40 people arrested during operations in the Chagmalai area on Friday night.

The ISPR said that security forces had arrested 10 assailants and seized arms and ammunition during raids on the outskirts of Tank.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar, however, denied the ISPR claim that 40 militants had been arrested.

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Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

Pak IB chief shot dead in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A director of the Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, Nisar Khan, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in Seerikh village adjoining Mohmand tribal district in the North West Frontier Province.

Khan was killed near his home when he was returning home after offering early morning prayers at a local mosque, the police said. "The attackers came in a white car, shot Nisar Khan and abducted the prayer leader of the mosque who was walking with him," said Momin Khan, a local police official.

The victim was rushed to a hospital and was declared brought dead.

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times of india