Crowd Tries to Attack U.S. Consulate in Pakistan

Pakistani paramilitary troops stand guard at a road leading to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009. (Photo credit: Fareed Khan / AP)

Jan. 11, 2009

KARACHI, Pakistan — Security forces used tear gas and batons to repel anti-Israel protesters who tried to attack a U.S. consulate in Pakistan on Sunday, as tens of thousands of people demonstrated worldwide against Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza on Dec. 27 to stop rocket fire from the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Gaza health officials say nearly 870 Palestinians have been killed, roughly half of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis have also died. …

Some 2,000 protesters in the Pakistani port city of Karachi burned U.S. flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans, and several hundred of them marched on the U.S. Consulate, senior police official Ameer Sheikh said. …

Washington provides a large amount of foreign aid to Jerusalem as well as military and weapons assistance. Israeli aggression is often perceived in the Muslim world as being financed and supported by the U.S. While Pakistan’s government is a U.S. ally, anti-American sentiment is pervasive in the Muslim majority country. …

Jewish communities appeared divided on the Israeli operations. … In a letter published in Britain’s Observer newspaper Sunday, 11 leading British Jews urged Israel to end its Gaza campaign and negotiate a settlement for security reasons.

“We are concerned that rather than bringing security to Israel, a continued military offensive could strengthen extremists, destabilize the region and exacerbate tensions inside Israel with its one million Arab citizens,” the letter said. …

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AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

Behind the Lines with the Taliban

Taliban fighters say they welcome the U.S. military’s proposal to send as many as 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer because it will give the Islamic guerrillas more chances to kill “infidels.” (Photo credit: Paul Watson / Los Angeles Times)

By Paul Watson
 
Jan. 11, 2009

A Times writer joins Taliban fighters in an especially dangerous part of Afghanistan. The men appear to have no fear of troops, and prove to be gracious hosts.

Excerpts

Seven years after a U.S.-led invasion routed the Taliban regime, hard-line Islamic fighters who had scattered under massive bombardment to their villages and rear bases in Pakistan once again govern large swaths of Afghanistan. Although they are strongest in the south and east, they have launched attacks in all regions of the country — and are well dug in across regions that surround Kabul, the capital. …

In Ghazni province, at least, the Taliban militants are not frightened fighters skulking in caves, sneaking out to ambush and then scurrying off to another mountain hide-out. They live comfortably in the farming villages where many of them were born, holding territory, recruiting and training new troops, reveling in what they see as God’s gift of inevitable victory against heathen foreign occupiers. …

During their downtime, they watch satellite TV and stay current with each day’s news. Lately, they’ve seen a lot of bombing and corpses on Al Jazeera television coverage of the Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Ghazni guerrillas said the images made them more determined than ever to fight, and if necessary die, to expel U.S. troops and their allies, whom they consider Crusaders bent on destroying Islam.

“We are ready to give our blood for the freedom of our homeland, and also to end the oppression by the Americans,” said Ahmadi, who masked his face with a black-and-white kaffiyeh, more commonly worn by Palestinian Arabs than his fellow Afghans.

“The Americans support Israel, and when they come all the way here, we must at least be ready to defend our land. Death in youth would be a matter of pride for us.”

Satellite TV has also kept the Talibs up to date on preparations for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, whom one dismissed as “just another infidel,” and the impending U.S. troop buildup.

The Talibs say any increase would only give them more opportunities to kill non-Muslims in jihad, or holy war, just as U.S.-backed mujahedin did in almost a decade of war to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

“The Russian army had hundreds of thousands of troops here and lost. Now it’s the Americans,” said a second Talib, who refused to identify himself. “If they increase their force to 100,000 or 200,000, we’ll never lose our morale. We will continue our jihad. The more soldiers they send, the happier we become.”
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Full story 

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IRAQ UPDATE

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Jan. 11, 2009, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – Gunmen stormed a money exchange shop, killing the owner and one of his employees, and wounding three other employees near eastern Baghdad’s Palestine street, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed three policemen when they attacked a police patrol in central Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Four policemen were wounded by a car bomb on Saturday in southern Mosul, police said.

MOSUL – Two bodies of men who had been shot dead were found in Mosul on Saturday, police said.

BAGHDAD – Four policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb on Saturday near al-Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, police said.