The Scotsman & USA Today / AP – 2006-01-20 09:03:40
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=76152006
Airstrike Strains Pakistan Alliance
The Scotsman
(January 16, 2006) — The pre-dawn airstrike aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri in a remote Pakistani village was intended as a devastating blow to al Qaida but it has strained ties with a key US ally in the war on terror and could provoke more anti-American fanaticism in this Islamic country, analysts have said.
Friday’s purported CIA mission, which Pakistani officials say missed its target and killed 17 people including women and children, also undermined the fragile goodwill cultivated in Pakistan by generous US relief in the wake of October’s earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people.
“This will consolidate anti-American sentiment,” said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and political analyst — as former US president George Bush arrived in Pakistan to tour the quake zone.
Thousands joined anti-US rallies across Pakistan at the weekend, calling for the resignation of military leader President Gen. Pervez Musharraf — who walks a political tightrope by maintaining close ties with Washington, which is reviled by many in this Islamic country for its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Monday that in the aftermath of the attack, the United States “should try to work to improve their image” and added it had “also created problems for this government.”
The attack was the third suspected US strike in less than two months inside Pakistan, which says it does not allow American forces based in Afghanistan to cross the border in the hunt against Taliban and al Qaida.
US news networks and Pakistani intelligence officials have described it as a CIA attack, probably carried out by missiles from a drone aircraft.
A US counterterrorism official said it’s still unclear if Osama bin Laden’s top deputy was killed in Friday’s attack in the Bajur tribal region, and Pakistani intelligence say 12 militants may have been killed – possibly including some of al-Zawahri’s aides.
But Pakistan clearly feels the attack was a step too far. It prompted its second formal protest within a week to the United States over what it called the “loss of innocent civilian lives.”
Masood forecast icy ties if the missions continue, but expected the anti-terror alliance to endure if such an attack “is not repeated in the near future.”
Rice: Al-Qaeda Can’t Be Treated Lightly
USA Today
MONROVIA, Liberia (January 16, 2006) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said al-Qaeda can’t be treated lightly as anti-American protests raged in Pakistan following a purported US attack on a village that may have harbored members of the terrorist network.
Rice offered no apologies for Friday’s airstrikes near the Afghanistan border and wouldn’t discuss details, including the fate of Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant.
“These are not people who can be dealt with lightly,” she said Sunday of al-Qaeda while traveling to Liberia for Monday’s inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected woman president.
Pakistani officials said the airstrikes killed at least 17 people, but not al-Zawahri, who they said was the intended target.
As Rice spoke Sunday, thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets for a second day to protest the airstrikes. They chanted “Death to America” and demanded U.S. troops leave neighboring Afghanistan.
“It’s obviously difficult at this time for the Pakistani government,” Rice said in the first remarks from a top Bush administration official following the airstrikes. “We’ll continue to work with the Pakistanis and we’ll try to address their concerns.”
Pakistani officials have strongly condemned the attack. It has fueled increasing anger in Pakistan, where many of the 150 million residents oppose the government’s involvement in the U.S.-led war against terror. (Related story: Islamic groups vow continued protests)
Pakistani intelligence officials have told The Associated Press that al-Zawahri was the reported target and had been invited to the village for a dinner marking an Islamic holiday on the night of the strike but he did not show up.
Rice praised the Pakistanis as “great allies” in the war against terrorism.
“I would just say to the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people, we are allies in the war on terror, that we’ve made a lot of progress by their cooperation in the war on terror. The biggest threat to Pakistan of course is what al-Qaeda has done in trying to radicalize the country,” Rice said.
She said extremists continue to occupy parts of Pakistan and twice have attempted to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The White House declined to comment on the attacks, except to praise Musharraf as well as Pakistan as “a valued ally on the war on terror.”
A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information’s sensitivity, said it’s still unclear if al-Zawahri was killed in the attack.
Senators defended the airstrikes Sunday.
“We apologize, but I can’t tell you that we wouldn’t do the same thing again” in going after al-Zawahri, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“We have to do what we think is necessary to take out al-Qaeda, particularly the top operatives. This guy has been more visible than Osama bin Laden lately,” McCain, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the CIA had been watching the area for several days and that the agency would not have conducted such an operation without extraordinarily high levels of intelligence.
“It’s a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do?” Bayh told CNN’s Late Edition. “It’s like the wild, wild west out there. The Pakistani border is a real problem.”
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., another Intelligence Committee member, said such strikes are necessary to get at al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan who are directing anti-American violence in Iraq. “My information is that this strike was clearly justified by the intelligence,” Lott said.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, fon noncommercial, educational purposes.
