Pakistan stops NATO supplies after deadly raid

Student supporters of Islami Jamiat Talaba, a student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, protest against NATO forces in front of a burning tyre in Lahore, November 26, 201


NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan yesterday, killing as many as 28 troops and plunging US-Pakistan relations deeper into crisis.

Pakistan retaliated by shutting down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in nearly half of the alliance’s land shipments.

Islamabad also said it had ordered the United States to vacate a drone base in the country, but a senior US official said Washington had received no such request and noted that Pakistan had made similar eviction threats in the past, but did not follow through.

Afghans Say Pakistan Fired First in NATO Attack

As Pakistan's top leaders gathered Sunday to bury 24 Pakistani soldiers killed by NATO airstrike, Afghan officials said Pakistani forces fired first and challenged the Pakistani claim that the helicopter attack was ...

In Tripoli, Nato chief hails ‘free Libya’

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen listens to journalists questions during a Nato conference in Budapest on November 19, 2009


Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday hailed the end of the alliance’s military intervention in Libya, which helped bring about the death of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“It’s great to be in Libya, free Libya,” Rasmussen told a news conference in the capital Tripoli. “We acted to protect you. Together we succeeded. Libya is finally free, from Benghazi to Brega, from Misrata to the Western Mountains and to Tripoli.”

He said he was proud of the part Nato had played in the seven-month insurgency against Gaddafi, in which Nato planes and ships turned their firepower on his forces.

Shortly after Rasmussen spoke, members of the ruling National Transitional Council elected a new interim prime minister, whose predecessor resigned after Libya was officially declared liberated.

NATO concludes Libya mission after seven months

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks at a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin on October 27, 2011.

NATO ends its military operation in Libya at midnight today, seven months after launching an air and sea campaign that helped bring the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi.

In announcing the decision last week, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called it “one of the most successful” operations in the history of the 62-year-old alliance.

Rasmussen will mark the end of the mission by visiting Libya today, where he will meet Libya’s National Transitional Council and members of civil society, the alliance said.

Despite Rasmussen’s depiction of the mission, the NATO intervention caused sharp rifts in the alliance and went on much longer than Western nations had expected or wanted.

NATO deploys helicopters to raise pressure on Gaddafi

A French military attack helicopter takes off from the deck of the French Navy helicopter carrier Tonnerre, to participate in their first military operation in Libya, in this June 3, 2011 photograph released by the French military on June 4, 2011. NATO employed attack helicopters to hit targets in Libya for the first time on Saturday, an alliance statement said.


British and French attack helicopters were used to strike inside Libya for the first time overnight today, hitting targets in the oil port of Brega as NATO forces stepped up their air war against Muammar Gaddafi.

A NATO-led military alliance extended its mission to protect civilians in Libya for a further 90 days this week, and France said it was stepping up military pressure as well as working with those close to Gaddafi to try to persuade him to quit.

“This was the first operational mission flown by British Army Apaches at sea,” British Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox said.

“The additional capabilities now being employed by NATO further reinforces the UK’s enduring commitment and NATO’s determination to... ensure that the people of Libya are free to determine their own future.”

Libya's oil minister defects to 'fight for democracy'

Shukri Ghanem told reporters in Rome: 'I have left my country and my work to unite myself with the choice of young Libyans to fight for a democratic country.' Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP Libya's oil minister Shukri Ghanem has defected and ...

Despite warning, Karzai knows US is an ally, says Gates

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recognises that the United States is a friend and ally even as he warns that civilian casualties in Afghanistan risk making US-led troops appear to be an occupying force, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.

Gates, who spoke to reporters in Hawaii while en route to an Asian security conference, was reacting to Karzai’s statement yesterday that raids on Afghan homes in pursuit of insurgents are “not allowed” and his threat to take action if a spate of civilian casualties does not stop.

Karzai expressed anger over Nato air strikes on Sunday in southern Helmand Province that killed at least nine people, most of them small children.

Bombing will continue in Libya as Nato mission is extended by 90 days

# Cameron denies British soldiers are now on the ground
# Latest air strikes destroy government ammunition dumps

Britain has welcomed Nato's decision to extend its mission in Libya for a further 90 days, which could see operations continue almost to the end of September.

Operations to enforce the no-fly zone and use air power to protect civilians were authorised for an initial 90 days - up to the end of June - when the military alliance took over command on March 31.

But with dictator Muammar Gaddafi still holding firm in the face of international military action, the allies have agreed an extension today.

The development came as UN investigators said that both Gaddafi and the forces of the opposition have committed war crimes in Libya.

A report by three UN-appointed experts called on both sides to conduct transparent and exhaustive investigations and bring those responsible to justice.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman insisted that Britain has no combat troops in Libya, following the publication of photographs which appear to show Westerners on the ground in the country.

Men reported to be ex-SAS soldiers were pictured training the rebels. The Guardian reported that some were being used by Nato to identify targets in Misrata, while the Daily Mirror quoted a source saying they were 'representing Britain'.

But Government sources insisted there was no funding of such help for the rebels.

A private security firm is thought to have been employed to protect a joint Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence team sent to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to offer technical assistance.

Asked if the UK was paying private security firms engaged in Libya, Mr Cameron's spokesman said: 'We have had an FCO/MoD team in Benghazi. Clearly we take their security seriously and have arrangements in place.'

 Target: Soldiers and civilians gather in front of a burning official building following a recent airstrike in Tripoli

 Danger zone: Smoke billows from a blast in the parking lot of the Tibesti hotel in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi yesterday

More on the way: Enhanced Paveway bombs arrive in Gioia Del Colle, Italy, from where the RAF is launching bombing raids on Libya

Tensions increase in Pakistan after Nato helicopter injures two soldiers in attack on Afghan border

A Nato helicopter attacked a Pakistani army post near the Afghan border today, injuring two Pakistani soldiers in an incident that could further increase tensions following the U.S. raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

Nato confirmed there were helicopters flying near the Pakistani border and was investigating the reported attack.

‘There were helicopters operating in the border region, and we are aware there has been an incident,’ said Nato coalition spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian. ‘But we are going to have to assess the situation.’

Catch it if you can: A U.S Marine Cobra attack helicopter fires diversionary flares as it flies near Forward Operating Base Edi in the volatile Helmand Province

Fearsome: Cobra attack helicopters, like this one pictured in southern Afghanistan, are regularly used to battle the Taliban

Nato helicopters attacked from Pakistan, returned fire

Two Nato helicopters supporting a coalition base in eastern Afghanistan came under fire twice from across the Pakistan border, and returned fire the second time, a western military official told Reuters today.

The official declined to comment on whether the helicopters had crossed the border or fired into Pakistan from Afghan airspace.

Local intelligence officials from northwest Pakistan said today that two Pakistani troops were wounded by Nato helicopters that crossed the border.

Libyan TV carries audio of Gaddafi taunting Nato

Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi gestures to his supporters before making a speech in Tripoli March 2, 2011.

Libyan state television carried brief audio remarks it said were by leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday in which he taunted Nato as a cowardly crusader and said he was in a place they could not reach.

The comments came after Italy’s foreign minister said Gaddafi had very likely left the Libyan capital and probably been wounded by Nato air strikes, an account Tripoli dismissed.

“I tell the cowardly crusader (Nato) that I live in a place they cannot reach and where you cannot kill me,” said the voice, which sounded like Gaddafi’s.

“Even if you kill the body you will not be able to kill the soul that lives in the hearts of millions,” Gaddafi said, adding he received a “massive” number of calls following a NATO air strike on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli on Thursday.

Libya’s Gaddafi survives air strikes, son killed

Spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, who took foreign journalists on a guided tour: “This is not permitted by international law. It is not permitted by any moral code or principle.Libyans in Benghazi celebrate May 1, 2011, following news that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son was killed.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a Nato air strike on a Tripoli house that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren, a government spokesman said today.

Libyan officials took journalists to the house, which had been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely caved in in some areas, leaving mangled rods of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.

“What we have now is the law of the jungle,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told a news conference. “We think now it is clear to everyone that what is happening in Libya has nothing to do with the protection of civilians.”

Gaddafi, who seized power in a 1969 coup, is fighting an uprising by rebels who have seized much of the eastern part of the country. British and French-led Nato forces are permitted under a United Nations resolution to mount air attacks on Gaddafi forces to protect civilians.

Inside one part of the villa hit late on yesterday, a beige corner sofa was virtually untouched, but debris had caved in on other striped upholstered chairs. The blasts had been heard across the city late yesterday.

A table football machine stood outside in the garden in a wealthy residential area of Tripoli. Glass and debris covered the lawns, and what appeared to be an unexploded missile lay in one corner.

Driver killed and two dozen Nato fuel tankers are torched as gunmen launch sixth attack on stranded Afghan convoy

Gunmen killed a driver today and torched more than two dozen stranded tankers carrying fuel from Pakistan to Nato troops in Afghanistan.

It was the sixth attack on convoys since Pakistan closed a key border route almost a week ago after a Nato helicopter attack left three of its troops dead.

Last week's closure of the Torkham crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass has left hundreds of trucks stuck on the country's highways, causing a bottleneck heading to the one route into Afghanistan from the south that has remained open.

Fiery hell: Helpless Pakistani firemen can do nothing to stop the blazing tankers in the latest strike against convoys heading for Afghanistan to supply Nato troops.

Inferno: A Pakistani firefighter gestures to his colleagues to stay back after militants burned a convoy of oil tankers carrying fuel to Nato troops in Afghanistan and killed a driver

Gunmen in Pakistan attacked and set fire to 20 trucks transporting supplies to Nato troops

Militants set fire to NATO tankers in Pakistan

Suspected militants in Pakistan set fire to more than two dozen tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan today, officials said, a day after three soldiers were killed in a cross-border NATO air strike.

Angered by repeated incursions by NATO helicopters over the past week, Pakistan has blocked a supply route for coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is a crucial ally for the United States in its efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but analysts say border incursions and disruptions in NATO supplies underline growing tensions in the relationship.

Firemen extinguish a fire on a burning oil tanker on a highway near Shikarpur, about 39km from Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province, October 1, 2010

US says not considering Nato Afghan troop request

The United States does not plan to contribute to a Nato request for 2,000 troops for the Afghan war, the Pentagon said yesterday, even as the head of the alliance held out the possibility of US participation.

The NATO commander in Afghanistan submitted a request last week that alliance officials said called for another 2,000 soldiers, including 750 trainers.

US soldiers from Delta Company, a part of Task Force 1-66 patrol in the Arghandab river valley, Kandahar province, Sept 6, 2010.

Nato chief condemns US church’s plans to burn Koran

The head of Nato today condemned a small Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, saying it was disrespectful and could endanger Western troops.

The Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre church plans to go ahead with the torching of the Koran on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 2001 attacks against the United States by the militant Islamist group al Qaeda. The church’s plans have been the subject of an angry protest in Afghanistan on Monday and condemned by top US military commanders there.

NATO asks for more troops for Afghanistan

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for 2,000 more soldiers to join the 140,000-strong international force here, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.

Coalition officials said nearly half will be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces and will include troops trained to neutralize roadside bombs that have been responsible for about 60 percent of the 2,000 allied deaths in the nearly 9-year war.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about the issue with media, said the NATO-led command had been asking for the troops even before Gen. David Petraeus assumed command here in July.

Petraeus recently renewed that request with the NATO command in Brussels. The alliance has had trouble raising more troops for the war effort, with at least 450 training slots still unfilled after more than a year.



Afghan protesters step on a U.S. flag during a demonstration against the United States, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 6, 2010. Hundreds of Afghans railed against the U.S. and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce an American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11

Afghan leader condemns NATO air strike as Gates arrives

Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 campaign workers for this month’s election, a sour note as US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived for talks.

Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces while hunting militants have been a major source of tension between Karzai and his Western allies.

Gates’s arrival also came amid renewed concern over corruption, one of Washington’s biggest concerns in Afghanistan, after two officials from the country’s top private bank left their positions amid allegations of graft.

Militants kill seven and destroy more than 50 Nato lorries in bold attack just six miles from Islamabad

Attacks in the north-western Khyber tribal region of Pakistan have forced NATO to look for alternative routes, including through Central Asia

Survivors: Pakistani truckers gather near the burnt out wreckages of NATO supply trucks

Remains: A group of children walks past the charred convoy early this morning. The attack was unprecedented

Gunmen in Pakistan last night torched more than 50 lorries carrying supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan, killing at least seven people.

A group of around 15 militants first opened fire with automatic weapons and grenades before torching the convoy, police said.

The Taliban frequently attack trucks carrying supplies for U.S.-led foreign forces in Pakistan's north-west and south-west bordering Afghanistan, but the attack near Islamabad late on Tuesday was unprecedented.
Those who were killed are believed to be Pakistanis employed as drivers or assistants. Seven people were also wounded in the attack, which took place around 11.35pm local time (6.35pm GMT).

Brazen attacks might signal a new Taliban strategy