| Terrorists attack Pakistan military base, at least 12 killed Posted: 23 May 2011 03:08 AM PDT 
Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik speaks to the media outside Mehran naval aviation base, which was attacked by militants, in Karachi. |
| Pak military base siege close to an end; planes destroyed, 12 killed Posted: 23 May 2011 03:06 AM PDT 
KARACHI: Troops appeared to be ending a Taliban siege of Pakistan's naval air force headquarters on Monday after the most audacious militant attack in the unstable, nuclear- armed country since the killing of Osama bin Laden. More than 20 Pakistani Taliban gunmen stormed the PNS Mehran base in the city of Karachi on Sunday, blowing up at least one aircraft and battling troops for more than 12 hours. Security officials, however, said the operation was in the final stage and Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik told reporters that a major area in the base had been cleared. "The operation has not finished yet, but is nearing an end," one security official said. "It's in the final stages." The assault casts fresh doubt on the Pakistani military's ability to protect its bases following an attack on the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in 2009, and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by US special forces on the al-Qaida leader's hideout north of Islamabad on May 2. The Pakistan Taliban, which is allied with al Qaeda, said the attack was to avenge bin Laden's death. "It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. Sporadic bouts of heavy gunfire erupted from the base as security forces battled to end the siege. Twelve military personnel were killed and 14 wounded in the assault that started at 10.30pm on Sunday (1730 GMT), a navy spokesman said. "The operation is still on but resistance from militants has reduced significantly," spokesman Mohammad Yasir told Reuters. A security source said at least three militants had been killed. GUNS, ROCKET-PROPELLED GRENADES One security official said the militants had taken over a building in the base. Another official, contacted inside the base, denied reports that hostages had been taken, but added: "There is a chance that some terrorists have suicide belts or jackets." The base is 15 miles (24 km) from the Masroor Air Base, Pakistan's largest and a possible depot for nuclear weapons. "They were carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and hand grenades. They hit the aircraft with an RPG," another navy spokesman, Commander Salman Ali, said of the militants. One P-3C Orion, a maritime patrol aircraft supplied by the United States, had been destroyed and another aircraft had been damaged. Media reports said the attackers had made their way in through a sewer pipe but that was not confirmed. |
| Taliban leader Mullah Omar killed? Group says no Posted: 23 May 2011 03:05 AM PDT 
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been killed in Pakistan, an Afghan TV channel said on Monday. The Taliban promptly denied this. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," Xinhua cited Afghanistan's TOLO television as reporting. However, it did not provide details on how he was killed and by whom. A security official too confirmed the killing, saying: "It is correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." Mullah Omar was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news about Mullah Omar broke, the Pakistani Taliban said the reports were not true. "Tahreek-e-Taliban has strongly denied that Mullah Omar was killed, while he was on his way from Quetta to Waziristan, as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and a section of the media reported," Geo TV said. According to the US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar's Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network in the years prior to the Sep 11 attacks. Osama was gunned down May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan's Abbottabad city. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has a $10 million award on him. |
| .:: TOP 20 SONGS ::. (REQUESTED BY Radio2fun LISTENERS) Posted: 22 May 2011 10:56 AM PDT 
1. Er Beshi Valobasha Jayna - Shafiq Tuhin 2. Doob - Habib 3. Binoyer Obotar - Upol 4. Dola - Mila 5. Debo Aaj bole - Hridoy Khan 6. Hridoy - Elita & Mahadi 7. Koto Je Valobashi - Parvej 8. Shopno - Shafiq Tuhin & Fahmida Nobi 9. Kache Ele Valobeshe - Hridoy Khan & Elita |
| Baghdad hit by series of bombs, 18 killed Posted: 22 May 2011 08:29 AM PDT 
BAGHDAD: More than a dozen bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday left at least 18 people dead, including 12 people killed in a suicide attack, and 80 wounded. The series of attacks comes just days after blasts against police in a tense northern city killed 29 people, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid questions over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country. A total of 12 roadside bombs, three vehicles packed with explosives and one suicide attacker struck in the spate of morning blasts on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear to what extent, if any, the violence was coordinated. The deadliest attack saw 12 people killed and 23 wounded in a suicide bombing in the town of Taji, 25 kilometres north of the capital, an interior ministry official said, on condition of anonymity. A defence ministry official put the toll at 14 dead and 28 wounded in Taji. A car bomb had initially gone off at around 9:00 am in the town and when residents and ambulance crews arrived at the scene, the suicide bomber blew himself up, causing the casualties, the interior ministry official said. Among the victims were eight police killed, while four policemen and three soldiers were wounded. The interior ministry official said the initial car bomb had exploded as a US army convoy was passing through Taji, but an American military spokesman said he had received "no indication" of any such attack. In Baghdad, four roadside bombs and a car bomb near a police station in the southern neighbourhood of Al-Amil killed two people and wounded 15, including three policemen, while a roadside bomb in Saidiyah, also in the south, wounded three people. Two separate roadside bombs, one near a hospital and another near a popular market, in the predominantly Shiite north Baghdad district of Sadr City left two people dead and 14 wounded, the interior ministry official said. Police at the scene, however, told an AFP journalist that one of the blasts had been a car bomb. Also in north Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police brigadier general's convoy killed a civilian and wounded five people, including two of the senior commander's bodyguards. Two roadside bombs in central Al-Wathiq square killed one person and wounded 12, six of them policemen, while a bomb blast in eastern Beirut Square wounded six. Two people were wounded by two roadside bombs that were ostensibly targeting a civilian spokesman for Baghdad's security command centre in east Baghdad. Sunday's violence comes a day after seven people were killed in attacks in the disputed northern province of Kirkuk, further raising tension in the oil- producing region after three bombings killed 29 people in Iraq's deadliest day since late March. |
| Pakistan's India obsession a mistake: Obama Posted: 22 May 2011 08:27 AM PDT 
Obama said the US wants Pakistan to realise that the biggest threat to it does not come from outside but is "homegrown". LONDON: Pakistan's obsession with India that makes it look at its neighbour as an "existential threat" is a mistake and it would do well to shed this contest mentality, US President Barack Obama has said. Speaking to BBC on the eve of his visit to Britain, Obama said both he and British Prime Minister David Cameron understood that Pakistan has been "very obsessed" with India. He said the US wants Pakistan to realise that the biggest threat to it does not come from outside but is "homegrown". He said, "They see that as their existential threat. I think that's a mistake. I think that peace between India and Pakistan would serve Pakistan very well". He said Pakistan needs to shed its orientation of looking at every issue through the India lens to be able to make full economic progress. "It would free up resources and capacity for them to engage in trade and commerce, and make enormous strides that you're seeing India make. But that's their orientation". Obama further added that it's been that orientation for a long time. And so they look at issues like Afghanistan or the border region in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) through the lens of what does this mean for their contest with India. Obama said the US is currently trying to bring about a reorientation in Pakistan's attitude towards India and make it recognise that the main threat is from terrorists operating from Pakistan soil. He said, "Well, part of what we're trying to do is to talk to them about how they can reorient their strategy so that they understand that the biggest threat to Pakistan and its stability is homegrown. And that if we don't go after these networks that are willing to blow up police stations, blow up crowds of people assassinate Pakistani elected officials with impunity - if they don't get a handle on that then they're gonna see a significant destabilisation of the country". |
| US president says he will act to stop attacks on US Posted: 22 May 2011 08:25 AM PDT 
US President Barack Obama has said he is "respectful of Pakistani authority" but that his administration could not let people plan to attack and kill US or its allies' citizens, "without taking action." His comments came in an exclusive interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, after he was asked whether he would enter Pakistani territory or other sovereign territory to capture high profile al-Qaeda operatives. |
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