News
Sunday, May 29, 2011
US hands list of five ‘most wanted’ men to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The United States has handed a list of five terrorist leaders to Pakistan to provide intelligence about immediately and possibly target in joint operations, reported ABC News. The list includes Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al Zawahiri and Taliban commander Mullah Omar, according to a US official and a Pakistani official. The list also includes Siraj Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani network, believed to be run out of the Pakistani tribal areas; Ilyas Kashmiri, a senior member of al Qaeda once dubbed “the next Osama bin Laden”; and Atiya Abdel Rahman, the Libyan operations chief of al Qaeda. The list was discussed during three separate meetings between senior Pakistani and US officials in the past two weeks, including today in Islamabad with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a US official, a Pakistani government official and a Pakistani intelligence official.
The United States views the list as a test of whether Pakistan is serious about fighting terrorists who have long enjoyed safe havens within its borders.
But the list does not only include militants the United States wants Pakistan to target. In the case of Omar, the United States is interested in determining whether he can be part of political reconciliation in Afghanistan, and is pushing the Pakistanis to facilitate such an outcome, according to two US officials. The United States has already opened a dialogue with a man believed to be an emissary of Omar, according to two senior Afghan officials. daily times monitor
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk