26 March 2009

WASHINGTON: The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials.

According to US daily report, the support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements.

Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said.

There is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections.

The American officials said proof of the ties between the Taliban and Pakistani spies came from electronic surveillance and trusted informants.

American terrorism inside Pakistan takes more innocent lives A US missile strike martyred five innocent people in Mir Ali town in North Waziristan on Thursday.

US drone struck a house of local Malik Gulab Khan in the Sokhel area.

Four civilians people were martyred and four others injured in the attack.

The strike is the second in as many days by the drones, with a missile on Wednesday martyred seven civilians in the nearby Makeen area of South Waziristan.

US envoy outlines Afghan strategy to NATO, EU BRUSSELS

Meanwhile, US envoy Richard Holbrooke outlined to NATO Monday new plans to beat Mujahideen in Afghanistan, an official said, as President Barack Obama seeks a way to end more than seven years of fighting.

Holbrooke met NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the 26 ambassadors in Brussels, as the alliance battles a massive challenge posed by the Mujahideen and their backers. "This was a highly classified discussion," said a NATO official.

"Ambassador Holbrooke came to give the main lines of thinking in the US review, which I understand has not been 100 percent completed."

"The ambassadors offered their view points and of course had questions about where the US intended to go."

The talks were the last before a "big tent" international meeting on Afghanistan in The Netherlands on March 31, when Washington's strategy for tackling a problem fuelling international extremism should be made public.