Baitullah Mahsud, an al-Qaida ally who leads the Taliban in Pakistan, pulled out of a peace deal with the government after it refused to withdraw the army from tribal lands on the Afghan border. Tribal elders in Pakistan's South Waziristan region have been trying to broker the deal. Mehsud has been accused of masterminding a wave of suicide attacks that have rocked Pakistan since mid-2007, including one that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (though Mehsud has denied involvement) in December. The peace talks were aimed at making permanent a five-week lull in a wave of suicide attacks that has killed more than 1,000 people in Pakistan since the start of 2007.
Mawlawi Omar, the group's spokesman, said "hidden hands" in Pakistani intelligence agencies were acting under the influence of "foreign forces" to subvert the peace process. Pakistan's new coalition government, led by the late Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), has said it wants to open talks with the militants in a bid to break with the policies of President Pervez Musharraf. Mehsud declared a unilateral truce last week with security forces in the lawless tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, after officials said the government had drafted a peace agreement with the group.The government has made pacts with the militants in Waziristan before. The deals led to a lull in fighting, but gave militants room to regroup and intensify cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
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Taliban militants killed at least 18 Afghans, including seven civilians, and wounded 31 more in a suicide bomb attack on a drug eradication team in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban have vowed to step up suicide attacks this year, to undermine the faith of Afghans in the ability of their government to provide security and to sap support in the West for the continued presence of international troops in the country. The bomber targeted an opium poppy eradication team led by the district chief, tribal elders and police officers as they left the local government headquarters in Khogiani, a town south of the city of Jalalabad and close to the Pakistan border.
MI5 outsources torture
Officers of the British security service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions of al-Qaida suspects. A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by security service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.
Those men have given detailed accounts of their alleged ordeals at the hands of the ISI over the last four years. Some of them appear to have been taken to the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi, where they say they were repeatedly tortured before being questioned by MI5. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, it is an offence for British officials to instigate or consent to the inflicting of "severe pain or suffering" on any person, anywhere in the world, or even to acquiesce in such treatment.
New rights violations in Zimbabwe: Human Rights Watch
The Zimbabwean army is responsible for a new wave of rights violations throughout Zimbabwe, according to the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch. Military forces are providing arms and trucks to so-called "war veterans" who have been implicated in numerous acts of torture and other violence against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and supporters. "The army and its allies - ‘war-veterans' and supporters of the ruling party ZANU-PF - are intensifying their brutal grip on wide swathes of rural Zimbabwe to ensure that a possible second round of presidential elections goes their way," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at HRW. In the aftermath of general elections that took place on March 29, 2008, HRW has documented serious abuses in the worst-affected areas of Zimbabwe - the capital Harare, and the provinces of Mashonaland East, West, and Central, Manicaland, and Masvingo.
Militant outfits active in J&K re-grouping in Pakistan
Harkatul Mujahideen (HuM), Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badar, all banned Pakistan-based militant outfits operating in Kashmir, have established new offices and have carried out grafitting, hoisted flags and displayed posters to inform the public about their activities, including gatherings in mosques in the port metropolis of Karachi. The militant outfits are active under new names and they recently held large rallies in Karachi. Harkatul Mujahideen has moved its base from Islamabad to the outskirts of Rawalpindi, and is likely to rename itself "Insarul Ummah". The Jaish-e-Muhammad leadership is in the process of finalising a new name for the outfit.
Afghan militants attack German convoy
A German military convoy became the target of a suicide attack near the north Afghan city of Kunduz. No German soldiers were injured and the vehicles suffered no material damage during the suicide attack which took place at 7:30 am, some 60 kilometers south of Kunduz. The "mixed reconnaissance unit" was en route from Kunduz to Mazar-i-Sharif. Germany has based around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
East Timor rebel leader surrenders
The leader of a group of rebels accused of trying to assassinate East Timor's president has surrendered. Gastao Salsinha and eleven other rebels handed themselves in to Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres at the government palace in the capital, Dili. Guterres described the surrender as a "historic moment" for East Timor. Guterres said after the surrender: "Officially the rebellion is over and now what we have to do is bring all of them to justice." The rebels, all of whom were former soldiers, had been on the run since violent protests in 2006 that left more than 30 people dead. The protests followed Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's decision to sack 600 striking members of the army.
President Jose Ramos-Horta was seriously hurt in the February attack, which triggered fears for the stability of the newly-independent nation. He underwent weeks of treatment for bullet wounds in an Australian hospital and only returned to East Timor earlier this month. Gastao Salsinha took over the leadership of the rebels from Alfredo Reinado, who was shot dead in the attack on Mr Ramos-Horta.
Tunisia warned of "spectacular attacks"
Algeria has warned Tunisia that al-Qaida terrorists are planning "spectacular attacks" to destabilise local government and strike at industrial installations. The warning followed last week's attacks by the Algerian army on three hideouts east of Algiers in which ten suspected terrorists were killed. The army identified them as members of the "al-Qaida Organisation in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb", which is allied with Osama bin Laden's international network. Tunisia is one of the group's main targets because of its friendly relations with the United States and its successful antiterrorist activities. North Africa is being targeted in part because the threat posed by Islamic terrorism in Europe has been considerably curtailed in recent months.
Russia boosts force presence in Georgia conflict zone
Russia is beefing up its peacekeeping force in Georgia's breakaway regions to counter a military build-up by Tbilisi, prompting Georgia to condemn the move as illegal and irresponsible. The Russian plan to send extra troops to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions marked a new escalation in a crisis between the two ex-Soviet neighbors that has alarmed Georgia's allies in the West. The latest crisis between Moscow and Tbilisi came after Russian premier Vladimir Putin ordered officials to strengthen ties with the separatists, citing concerns about the welfare of people living there.
