New Delhi kept up the pressure on Islamabad yesterday saying it was ready for war or even nuclear strikes by Pakistan if regional tensions spiraled out of control. Indian troops also claimed to have killed 10 Pakistani soldiers in cross-border firing, but this was swiftly denied by a Pakistan military spokesman. The warning from Indiaâs tough-talking army chief Gen. S. Padmanabhan came as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was preparing to address the nation today. His speech was expected to announce curbs on Muslim militants in a bid to defuse the most serious crisis between the rivals in 30 years.
Padmanabhan warned that if Islamabad dared to unleash its nuclear arms, India was prepared to retaliate with its own arsenal. "The perpetrator of that particular outrage shall be punished, shall be punished so severely that the continuation of any form of fray will be doubtful," he said. India has adopted a no-first-strike policy over its nuclear weapons, unlike Pakistan. But Padmanabhan warned: "We are ready for a second strike. Take it from me that we have enough arms." Padmanabhan reiterated the official Indian government line that Pakistan must take tougher action against anti-Indian militants based on its soil and added New Delhi knew how to strike against their training camps. India has accused Islamabad of failing to crack down on extremist groups, including two New Delhi blames for the Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian Parliament which triggered the current crisis.
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With the Indian Air Force moving its fighter squadrons close to Pakistani areas, Islamabad has asked the United States to vacate the two airfields of Jacobabad and Pasni for its use in the event of a war with India. With tensions between the two neighbors taut, Pakistan too moved its air units to the two airports, after requesting the Americans to confine themselves to Shamsi and Dalbandin airports. Though Pakistan is co-sharing the facilities at Jacobabad, and Pasni at present with the Americans, defense officials feel the need for the exclusive use of these two air bases. Talks were held in this regard.
The discussions were held between the US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and his counterpart Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan and the Joint Staff Headquarters in Rawalpindi late last month, officials said. Army and Air Force Special Forces of the US military, besides troops from 101st Airborne division, are currently posted at four Pakistani bases. Jacobabad and Pasni are two of the many operational bases used by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in all emergencies and the recent Indian military mobilization has forced Pakistani military leaders to requisition both airports from the US Central Command.
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01/12/2002 2:10:11 PM ||
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A plane carrying the first group of prisoners from the war in Afghanistan arrived at the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, yesterday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. Thousands of Afghan troops left Kabul yesterday as US soldiers said they had been attacked at an air base in southern Afghanistan minutes after a plane took off with a first batch of prisoners bound for Cuba. And with warlords and bandits setting up fiefdoms across Afghanistan, US troops began disarming local militia yesterday.
Also yesterday, US warplanes returned to pound targets in the Khost region of eastern Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network ran a guerrilla training base, a Pakistan-based news agency said. But the whereabouts of Bin Laden and his one-time protector, Taleban supreme leader Mulla Omar, remained a mystery. In Washington, President George W. Bush warned Iran against harboring members of Al-Qaeda network who fled Afghanistan and cautioned Iran not to challenge the new Afghan interim government. US troops began disarming ragtag militia fighters in the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistani border, witnesses said.
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In yet another act of blatant terror, Israel yesterday launched a second straight day of aggression against Palestinians, sending tanks into a Gaza Strip town after tearing up the runway at the Palestinians' airport. Later in the evening, Israeli tanks stormed the Gaza Strip airport again after bulldozing the runway of the airport, amid growing international pressure on the Palestinian Authority over a seized arms shipment. Palestinian security sources and witnesses said the tanks pushed three kilometers into Rafah, on the Egyptian border in a predawn raid, and that troops sealed off surrounding roads.
A 62-year-old Palestinian man died of a heart attack when the troops fired on his home near a hospital, medical sources said. Around the same time, Israeli troops arrested a militant from the resistance group Hamas during a raid on an autonomous Palestinian village in the West Bank, an Israeli military spokesman said.
The Palestinian Authority, already on the defensive over growing evidence it was involved in an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of arms into the territories, condemned the actions. "The Palestinian Authority is warning this Israeli aggression will make a big explosion ... create more violence in the region," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Col. Khaled Abu Al-Ula, head of the liaison committee in the Gaza Strip, charged the incursion constituted a "reoccupation of the sector."
This article starring:
COL. KHALED ABU AL ULA
Palestinian Authority
NABIL ABU RUDEINA
Palestinian Authority
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01/12/2002 2:05:22 PM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
