From: EurasiaDigest (digest@eurasianet.org)
Date: Fri May 02 2008 - 15:22:48 EDT
SEVEN KILLED IN RAID ON MILITANT HIDEOUT IN KABUL...
Hundreds of security personnel on April 30 raided the hideout of
militants suspected of having links with the assassination attempt on
President Hamid Karzai, AP reported. The raid sparked clashes that
killed seven people: a woman and a child who were in the house that was
destroyed during the raid, three intelligence agents, and two suspected
insurgents. Intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told reporters that the
raid in a heavily populated neighborhood of western Kabul was part of a
wider operation in which six other insurgent suspects have been detained
elsewhere in the capital. Saleh said that the militants involved in the
April 27 assassination attempt on Karzai had exchanged cell phone text
messages with collaborators in Pakistan's Bajur and North Waziristan
regions and the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. He said that
the Afghan security services "have no evidence whether the operation has
had any mercy or go-ahead from the government of Pakistan," but added
that "there is very, very strong evidence suggesting that Pakistan's
soil once again has been used to inflict pain on our nation." Pakistan
army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas called the allegation
"baseless," AP reported. "Anybody can say that militants [in the tribal
areas] have done this or that," he said. "How can one validate such
claims?" Meanwhile, Saeed Ansari, a spokesman for the Afghan
intelligence service, said on May 1 that the assassination attempt on
President Karzai was masterminded by militants with links to Al-Qaeda
members living in Pakistan's tribal regions, AP reported. Ansari also
stated that one of those killed during the April 30 raid on a militant
Kabul had ties to militant leader Siraj Haqqani, who is believed to have
been behind a deadly suicide attack on Kabul's Serena Hotel in January.
The U.S. military has a $200,000 bounty out on Haqqani, who is thought
to be based in Pakistan's tribal regions. AT
|
