US drone strikes Taliban stronghold as Peshawar attacked

US drone strikes Taliban stronghold as Peshawar attacked

A suspected US drone strike has killed at least eight Taliban militants in South Waziristan, Pakistan, where Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud is alleged to have been killed on Friday. Three missiles targeted a house in the region early Tuesday morning, killing eight people and wounding five. The house, thought to be have been used for Taliban training, was in a known Mehsud stronghold. The attack comes during the ongoing controversy over Mehsud's death in a US drone strike last week, with American and Pakistani officials' claims vehemently denied by Mehsud's inner circle. 

Meanwhile, Peshawar came under fire from dozens of rockets in a dawn attack on Tuesday morning. Two civilians are reported to have been killed in strikes on several areas of the city, whilst rockets also targeted a nearby paramilitary base. No claim of responsibility has been issued for the attacks.

The ToD verdict: With the US and Pakistani armed forces unable to bring their conventional forces to bear in Taliban heartlands, the continuation of low-intensity attacks employing drones may be advantageous to the US militarily. However, there is strong evidence that such methods will prove counter-productive to the campaign against the Taliban in the longer term.

The US rarely claims responsibility for drone strikes inside Pakistan, as it has proven to be a contentious issue regarding border sovereignty; however the armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency are understood to be the only forces in the region with the capacity to employ such vehicles.

According to a survey commissioned by Al Jazeera in all four provinces of Pakistan, local support for a military campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda elements within the country remains strong, with 41% reacting favourably.  In stark contrast, 67% opposed US drone operations inside Pakistan. Makhdoom Babar, the editor-in-chief of Pakistan's TheDaily Mail newspaper, believes that civilian casualties from drone strikes, due to erroneous targeting, are causing resentment amongst the population and fuelling support for the country's militant groups. This belief is supported by the fact that 59% of the 2,600 people surveyed believed the biggest threat to their security came from the US, a point that should serve as a wake-up call to the US's military strategy in Pakistan.

Should it emerge that Baitullah Mehsud was killed last week, officials believe that a leadership contest for control the area will take place, with a likelihood of al-Qaeda attempting to install a successor of its choosing. 

Afghans and foreign workers killed as pre-election violence escalates

Pre-election violence continued to spread across Afghanistan on Tuesday as seven people were killed in separate Taliban led attacks. Four servicemen of US and Polish nationality, serving with the International Security Assistance Force, and three members of the Afghan security forces were killed and several wounded in attacks in the South and East of the country. A further four civilians were killed and sixteen wounded by a roadside bomb in the southern Kandahar province.

With violence escalating daily, 2009 has proven to be the deadliest year the country has seen since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. The Taliban have vowed to continue violence in order to halt this month's presidential elections. On Tuesday Afghanistan's current president, Hamid Karzai, urged Afghans to ignore these threats and not to let the Taliban derail the 20 August election.Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in aworld of strife and struggle. Sign up to receive toD's daily securitybriefings via email by clicking here

Six arrested in Gulf over US army base plot

Kuwaiti authorities have detained six men they believe were plotting to carry out an attack on a US army base as well as a number of other "important facilities" in the country. In a brief statement released on Tuesday afternoon, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry stated that the six men had confessed plans to attack Camp Arifjan, the main U.S. base in the country, and also the headquarters of Kuwait's National Security Agency. The ministry suspected the six men of belonging to a terrorist cell linked to al-Qaeda. No further details of the plot were provided, however Al-Arabiya television reported that it was likely that the group was planning to attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will start around 20 August.   

Clinton urges Congolese to speak out against sexual violence

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, demanded an end to widespread sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday. During a press conference with the Congolose Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, Clinton deplored sexual and gender based violence, used routinely as a weapon in war-torn areas of the country, and demanded an end to the impunity of its perpetrators. The same message was delivered during an earlier meeting between the Congolese president Joseph Kabila and Clinton in Goma. Clinton also encouraged university students in the country's capital, Kinshasa, to speak out against the violence and to "write a new chapter in Congolese history".

The United Nations has highlighted the DRC as an area in which large scale sexual violence against women and girls takes place, prompting the Security Council to adopt resolution 1820, which demands that all parties to armed conflict immediately cease all acts of sexual violence against civilians. Despite this, the number of reported rapes in the country has risen dramatically since the government launched a renewed military campaign against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

Local militias created to secure Afghan polls.

10,000 Afghan tribesmen have been hired by authorities to provide security for the country's impending presidential election in a bid to fill a capacity gap faced by Afghanistan's security force. The extra men will initially be responsible for securing polling stations in 21 provinces. It is unclear, however, whether the newly formed local forces will be incorporated into the national security framework after the elections. 

Raising local military groups is a controversial tactic which has had varying success rates in the past. Local Sunni militias in Iraq were empowered after 2006 to fight against the insurgency, greatly reducing the amount of violence in areas they patrolled. Once empowered however, these groups proved difficult to control with some militias turning against the Iraqi government.