— File Photo

WANA: A remotely detonated bomb exploded near a vegetable market in South Waziristan tribal region’s Wana area on Friday killing militant commander Maulvi Abbas and three others.

A nine-year-old child was also injured in the blast, whereas nearby buildings were partially damaged.

According to security sources, Abbas appeared to be the target of the attack.

Emergency and security personnel reached the site of attack.

Security forces cordoned off the area as investigations into the incident went underway.

The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers and it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.

Abbas was previously ousted from Wana along with Uzbek and pro-Uzbek militants in 2007 after developing differences with Mullah Nazir.

Upon his ouster, Abbas had affiliated himself with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), only to return to Wana after reconciling with Nazir.

Abbas was operating independently after returning to Wana.

South Waziristan is among Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown insurgents and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

The tribal region was once the main stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban. The military launched a large offensive against militants there in 2009, but insurgents still operate in the area and periodically stage attacks.

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on cyberspace operations. – AP PHOTO

WASHINGTON, Oct 1, 2012 - Hackers are stepping up the intensity of their attacks, moving from “disruption” to “destruction” of key computer systems, the top US cyber-defense official said Monday.

General Keith Alexander, who is director of the National Security Agency and commander of the US Cyber Command, told a Washington forum that the new tactics could move beyond mere annoyances and begin causing severe economic damage.

“We are seeing the threat grow from exploitation to disruption to destruction,” he told the group at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

He argued that these attacks could impact organizations ranging from stock markets to power grid operators — “all of that is in the realm of the possible.”These types of destructive attacks can wipe out data, which could bankrupt a company or disable the control systems operating key infrastructure.

“It could overwrite the ability of a system to turn on,” Alexander said.

“Think about a company that loses all the data on its system… If you wipe out the data, you wipe out the ability of the system to operate.”Alexander said the best way to protect against these types of attacks is to implement an information sharing system between the private sector and government agencies – as was proposed in cyber-security legislation that failed this year in Congress.

Such legislation could include mandatory or voluntary reporting guidelines for when attacks occur, and it could allow those reporting the incidents to be immune from liability.

Senator Susan Collins, a sponsor of the failed cyber-security bill, told the same forum the need for new laws remains high.

“I hope we don’t have to wait for a ‘cyber 9/11′ for action to happen,” she said. “These problems are not going to go away.”Both Collins and Alexander said, despite news the White House is considering an executive order, the legal framework for cyber-security protection must come from legislation.

Collins said she told President Barack Obama that an executive order would be “a big mistake” and “cannot accomplish what legislation can.”She added that an executive order “could lull people into a false sense of security.”The two spoke the same day the White House acknowledged that one of its own computer networks was hit by a cyber attack, but said no classified systems were breached and there was no indication any data was lost.

An administration official spoke up after a report from a right-wing news site that Chinese hackers had breached a key White House military system.

The US official said the attack was against “an unclassified network” and was a case of “spear phishing,” in which a spoofed email tricks a user into clicking through to a website where a hacker can install malicious software or gain control of another computer.

“These types of attacks are not infrequent, and we have mitigation measures in place,” the official said.

The clash continued for hours, leaving two LI activists and a TI commander, identified as Sajid alias Shahjee, dead. Nine TI men were injured and taken to hospitals in Landi Kotal and Peshawar.  – File photo by AFP

LANDI KOTAL: Three militants, among them a ‘commander’, were killed and nine others injured when rival groups clashed in the remote Bazaar-Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency on Sunday.

According to sources, the clash took place when armed activists of Lashkar-i-Islam attacked the positions of Tawheedul Islam in Bhango Darra area of Zaoddin to reopen a supply line blocked by the latter a few days ago.

The clash continued for hours, leaving two LI activists and a TI commander, identified as Sajid alias Shahjee, dead. Nine TI men were injured and taken to hospitals in Landi Kotal and Peshawar.

A spokesman for Tawheedul Islam in Landi Kotal claimed that six activists of Lashkar-i-Islam had been killed in the clash, but his claim could not be verified from independent sources.

The sources said that LI activists torched two houses belonging to their opponents and captured a bunker in Zaoddin area.

Gen John Allen,the commander of US-led International Security Assistance Force,met the Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad. A statement issued after the meeting said the two military chiefs made ‘significant progress’ in improving their operational relationship.    —Photo by  AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan have reached an understanding on joint operations against the Haqqani network but no final decision has been taken yet, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

The sources said the issue of cross-border attacks, by the Haqqani network into Afghanistan and by TTP into Pakistan, was discussed in a series of meetings between senior US and Pakistani officials this week.

US and Pakistani diplomatic sources in Washington indicated that the understanding for joint operations against the Haqqani network was reached at a meeting between senior US and Pakistani military commanders in Islamabad on Thursday.

But an influential US newspaper, Wall Street Journal, reported on Sunday that plans for joint operations were discussed in meetings between ISI chief Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam and top CIA, State Department and Pentagon officials in Washington this week.

On Thursday, Gen John Allen,the commander of US-led International Security Assistance Force,met the Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad. A statement issued after the meeting said the two military chiefs made ‘significant progress’ in improving their operational relationship.

The joint statement gave no details but the Wall Street Journal, reported that the two militaries were considering joint counter-terrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan that would target the Haqqani militant group.

A Pakistani diplomatic source in Washington, however, said that “any understanding on joint operations would also involve action against TTP bases in Afghanistan”.

The group has recently used its bases in Afghanistan to attack Pakistani military posts and villages along the Afghan border, killing scores of people.Another official source in Washington pointed out that no decision on joint operations “can be taken overnight, as it involves major logistic arrangements, such as providing financial support and moving military assets”.

The sources also noted that the US and Pakistan were yet to reach an understanding on Islamabad’s demand for stopping drone strikes in Fata.

At his meetings with the CIA chief and other senior US officials, Gen Islam is believed to have offered a proposal which urges the United States to identify targets and let Pakistani F-16s carry out the attacks.

The US has apparently not accepted this proposal but has promised to look at options that do not involve drones.

“The drone issue could also delay a final decision on joint operations against the Haqqani network,” an official source in Washington said.

US officials are believed to have demanded action against the Haqqani network at almost every meeting they had with Gen Zaheer.

While the Americans focussed on the activities of the Haqqani network, Pakistan stressed the need for taking actions against TTP bases in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials also told the Americans that they have no problem with the US intention of declaring the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organisation.

Last week, the US Congress passed two bills, urging the State Department to put the Haqqani network on its list terrorist outfits.

The designation will require all US allies, including Pakistan, to take punitive actions against the group.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that joint operations would attempt to stamp out both, the Haqqani network’s sanctuaries in Pakistan and TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

It is learnt that Taliban commander Nazir Afridi was among the dead.           – File Photo

LANDI KOTAL: A local Taliban commander, eight other militants and two volunteers were killed on Wednesday as heavy clashes between the two groups continued in Tirah valley of Khyber tribal region.

The Kukikhel tribe claimed to have killed nine Taliban and captured four others, but their claim could not be verified from independent sources.

Two volunteers of Akkakhel peace committee were shot dead by Lashkar-i-Islam men in the Abdullah Kor area.

It is learnt that Taliban commander Nazir Afridi was among the dead.

He was a nephew of Mangal Bagh and brother-in-law of Taliban commander Tariq Afridi.

Officials in Bara said Nazir Afridi was involved in a number of subversive activities, including attacks on military convoys and destruction of government buildings, but they did not confirm his killing.

Sunday’s attack in South Waziristan was the second in as many days and follows a surge in drone strikes in Pakistan since a Nato conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.      — File Photo

PESHAWAR: US drone strikes targeting a militant house and vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area killed at least ten suspected militants Sunday including two key militant commanders, security officials said, the second attack in 24 hours.

Two US drones fired four missiles at a house belonging to a suspected militant commander Malang Khan in Wacha Dana town, 10 kilometres  west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during an American unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack.

Officials said two of the dead were foreigners, and the rest were Pakistani where as one of the commanders killed in the attack was identified as Ghulam Khan belonging to the Maulvi Nazir group.

Sunday’s attack in South Waziristan was the second in as many days and the seventh attack in two weeks which follows a surge in drone strikes in Pakistan since a Nato conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.

Washington considers Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with space ship flies in the sky at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Circular star tracks around the Polar Star are a result of the long time exposure. - AP Photo

MOSCOW: A Soyuz craft adorned with a portrait of the first man in space docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, days before the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering flight.

U.S. astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Andrey Borisenko floated through the hatch to the warm welcome of three crew already aboard the orbital station after the docking, which NASA said took place at 3:09 AM Moscow time (2309 GMT Wednesday).

Space Station Commander, cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, called it an honour for all on board to be “on the front lines” for the anniversary fanfare.

“Gagarin is more than just an idol now, but a symbol of the beginning of a new era,” Kondratyev said from orbit, in comments posted by the Russian space agency Roskomos.

“Gagarin’s name is a symbol of the conquest of space, a symbol of the dreams of generations of people to fly from our planet beyond the bounds of what is possible,” he said.

The Soyuz TMA-21, with a picture of Gagarin on the side, blasted off hours before dawn on Tuesday from Russia’s long-secret Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan, where the cosmonaut’s flight began on April 12, 1961.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was two years old at the time of the flight, will visit Gagarin’s hometown some 150 km west of Moscow on Thursday.

Moscow is also expecting to welcome the heads of all the world’s space agencies for celebrations on Tuesday and talks on the future of human space flight after the space station is retired, due in 2020.

The cramped Soyuz does not look very different from the Soviet craft that took Gagarin around Earth on a 108-minute, single-orbit flight that stunned the world and raised the stakes in the US-Soviet space race.

It was “a giant leap in our evolution as a species”, Garan said in his last blog post before lift off.

Garan, who grew up believing he was related to the Soviet cosmonaut (via a great grandfather who emigrated to the United States under the name Ivan Gagarin) said Gagarin’s voyage set the stage for cooperation between nuclear-armed superpowers.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the world is a safer and more peaceful place today than it would be otherwise if we had not taken that first step into space,” Garan blogged.

“Even at the height of the Cold War, Russia and the U.S. still somehow found a way to cooperate during the Apollo-Soyuz program, which accomplished the first docking of U.S. and Russian spacecraft” in 1975.

Very early in life, Soyuz TMA-21 commander Samokutyayev also felt the draw of Gagarin’s flight, a mission that propelled space exploration from the pages of fantasy novels to reality.

Schoolmates jokingly called him “Sasha Gagarin” because he was always playing with a toy rocket, he said.

Gagarin, who was just 27 years old when he flew around the Earth, died seven years later in a crash during a training flight in March 1968. The exact cause of the crash remains shrouded in mystery.

In the superstitious, tradition-steeped cosmonaut corps, each crew stops the bus shuttling them toward the launchpad to step out and solemnly urinate on the right rear bus tyre.

And now the Americans flying on the Soyuz, have retraced Gagarin’s steps at every launch, crying: “Poyekhali! – Let’s go!”