Pakistan bombs Taliban in Waziristan, 5 shot in Karachi

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes killed at least a dozen Taliban fighters on Saturday, in a strike on their stronghold near the Afghan border, while police in the southern city of Karachi shot dead five militants.
U.S. officials have issued a steady stream of praise for Pakistan since the government first took the decision to go on the offensive against the militants over two months ago.
Operations in Swat and Buner, two valleys north of the capital of Islamabad, are in their final stages and the focus has switched to the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The air raid on Saturday on Mehsud`s mountainous redoubt was the latest in a series over recent weeks, and the government has already given orders for the military to mount an all-out assault.
The army is still assembling its forces in South Waziristan, and some diplomats expect some of the troops fighting in Swat to be moved there soon.
Mehsud is accused of a wave of suicide and bomb attacks, and while the body of his force has been focused inwards against Pakistan, his men also cross into Afghanistan to join the insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
The latest encouragement for Pakistan was delivered by Obama`s National Security Adviser Jim Jones, when he visited Islamabad this week on a trip that coincided with the Senate`s approval for the tripling of aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years.
RISK OF MILITANT ATTACKS ELSEWHERE
A close ally of al Qaeda, Mehsud carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, though there are several conspiracy theories over who was behind the former prime minister`s death.
Diplomats estimate that Mehsud has more than 20,000 men holed up with him, protected by a series of mountain ridges and dried out river beds, and gullies that provide excellent cover for the guerrilla fighters.
In Saturday`s air raid, fighter jets pounded a base run by a militant commander loyal to Mehsud in the Makeen area, around 70 km (44 miles) north of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
"The planes heavily bombed bases of Commander Shameem in Makeen and we have reports that 12 to 15 militants were killed," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.
The great worry is Mehsud`s ability to mobilize Taliban elsewhere in Pakistan in retaliation against any attack.  Continued...
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Israel army to curtail operations in four West Bank cities

By Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it would curtail its military activities in four West Bank cities to help a U.S.-backed move to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The announcement, that will give Palestinian security forces a free hand to operate in the cities, coincided with efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease tensions with U.S. President Barack Obama over stalled peacemaking with the Palestinians.
A senior Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the move as a public relations "sham." He said Israel should halt incursions without exception.
Israel has rebuffed U.S. calls for a halt to Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank. On Monday Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will meet Obama`s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in Washington to try to narrow differences.
"As of today, Palestinian security forces will be able to operate freely in the cities of Qalqilya, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jericho," an Israeli military official said.
The official said Israeli troops would still be able to operate within those cities, battlegrounds during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, "in cases of urgent security need." Abbas`s Western-backed government is based in Ramallah.
More than 1,600 security men loyal to Abbas have undergone U.S.-funded training since January 2008. They are derided as collaborators by Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after routing Abbas`s forces there.
Israel has slowly come to back the U.S. training program as a test of Abbas`s ability to rein in militants, as demanded in a 2003 peace "road map" for establishing a Palestinian state.
Abbas has ruled out resuming peace talks with Israel until it halts settlement activity, also required under the road map.
SECURITY RESPONSIBILITY
An Israeli security source said the army would "act as little as possible to allow the Palestinians to take more initiative and responsibility over their own security."
Israeli forces would stay out of the four cities except "in circumstances of `ticking bombs`, or a planned attack" against Israelis, the Israeli security source said.
The senior Palestinian security official countered: "If there is to be a change, they (Israeli troops) should stop the incursions, not enter under the pretext of `ticking bombs`."
The changes set out by Israel fell far short of Palestinian demands it pull its forces back to positions they held before the outbreak of the uprising.
Israel has been reducing its presence in parts of the West Bank, where anti-Israeli violence has declined. But the army still carries out routine patrols and occasional arrest raids.  Continued...
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