Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. officials confirm death of al Qaeda’s second-in-command in drone strike; U.S. Defense Secretary says drone strikes to continue; NATO helicopter intrudes into Pakistani airspace; U.S. to continue to negotiate reopening of supply routes with Pakistan; President Zardari in China for Shanghai Cooperation Organization meetings; Report concludes Pakistan impeding U.S. efforts to curb flow of bomb-making materials; Afghanistan accuses ISI of poisoning plot; Lashkar-e-Islam attacks injure 14; DPC calls for death sentence for Afridi. 

Drone Strikes and Death of Top Al Qaeda Leader

• On Tuesday, U.S. officials confirmed that a drone strike directed at a compound in the village of Hassu Khel in North Waziristan had killed Abu Yahya al Libi, reportedly al Qaeda’s second-in-command behind Ayman al Zawahiri. While the details of the attack were initially unclear, apparent confirmation came through on Tuesday with U.S. officials claiming that al Libi was the only person killed by the strike. A local tribesman, speaking to New York Times via phone, said three to five militants had actually been killed in the attack, according to Taliban sources. Speaking about the result of al Libi’s death, White House spokesman Jay Carney said “there is no clear successor to take on the breadth of his responsibility, and that puts additional pressure on al Qaeda.”[1]

U.S.-Pakistani Relations

• A judge in Pakistan granted bail on Tuesday to three Pakistani employees of the U.S. consulate in Peshawar who were arrested in connection with the police seizure of illegal weapons from U.S. diplomatic vehicles on Monday in the village of Chamkani in Peshawar. Police arrested the three Pakistani employees and questioned the U.S. diplomats riding in the car after officers seized arms and ammunition from the vehicle.[2]

• U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking to an audience in India on Wednesday, said the U.S. will continue to use drone strikes to target al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, specifically FATA, following the confirmed death of al Libi in Monday’s drone strike. Responding to questions about Pakistani sovereignty, Panetta said that because the militants who plotted and carried out the September 11 attacks resided in Pakistan, “this is about our sovereignty as well.” The Defense Secretary added that although both India and the U.S. have had a difficult relationship with Pakistan, the two countries needed to overcome those differences in order to promote stability in the South Asian region.[3] 

• On Tuesday, U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Capt. John Kirby attempted to allay tensions between Pakistan and the U.S. that had arisen due to Defense Secretary Panetta’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar in New Delhi on Tuesday. Pakistan’s concerns revolve around whether Panetta asked India to increase its role in training the Afghan army and police. Kirby responded by saying he thought “the reports [had] been slightly exaggerated” and that Panetta did nothing more than “expressed how much he appreciated the work they were doing to help provide support in Afghanistan.”[4]

• According to a not-yet-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report obtained by USA Today, the Pakistani Government is impeding U.S. efforts to reduce the flow of Pakistani fertilizer-based improvised explosive device (IED) materials into Afghanistan. According to the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization, Pakistani fertilizers form the base of 83 percent of IEDs used against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. U.S. officials quoted in the GAO report cite the Pakistani government’s delaying of American counter-IED workers’ visas as one of the prime causes of the difficulty in curbing the flow of bomb-making materials from Pakistan. Senator Robert Casey, who has led U.S. efforts to curb the flow of fertilizer into Afghanistan from Pakistan, called the report’s conclusions “particularly outrageous” before telling reporters that he will direct the GAO to conduct further investigations into the visa denial issue.[5]

NATO

• Pakistani officials on Tuesday said NATO helicopters operating in Afghanistan had violated Pakistani airspace by intruding into the Ghulam Khan area in North Waziristan. According to officials based in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area, two NATO helicopters crossed into the area from Afghanistan’s Khost province and fired rounds that landed in the border villages of Bangidar and Ghulam Khan. Although the paramilitary Frontier Corps retaliated by firing rockets and mortars, no casualties were reported by either side.[6]

• On Tuesday, U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Capt. John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. will continue to negotiate with Pakistan for the reopening of key supply routes to Afghanistan, despite the recently secured agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to transport military supplies out of Afghanistan through Central Asia. Though relations between Pakistan and the U.S. remain at odds due to a November 2011 NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Salala border checkpost, Kirby expressed U.S. resolve for opening the supply routes, saying “we continue to be in discussions with our Pakistani counterparts about… trying to get those [routes] open.”[7]

International Relations

• President Zardari landed in China on Wednesday for a two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where the President plans to push for full membership in the organization, according to Presidential Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar. Pakistan has maintained observer status in the Central Asia-focused SCO since 2005, actively participating in meetings and conferences on a regular basis. President Zardari also plans to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the conference in addition to holding official meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Vice President Xi Jinping.[8]

• EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with several Pakistani government officials on Tuesday as part of a two-day strategic dialogue meant to promote EU-Pakistani cooperation on socio-economic issues such as education, health, infrastructure, and energy. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also met with Ashton to discuss the prospects of a Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and the EU as a means to increase investment and alleviate Pakistan’s energy crisis.[9]

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

• Afghan intelligence on Wednesday accused the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of poisoning schoolgirls in Takhar province in an effort to “sabotage the Shanghai Conference and the success of Afghan education,” according to the Afghan National Directorate of Security spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. Afghan police have arrested 15 suspects in connection to a mysterious illness that has plagued several schoolgirls in Takhar province over the past two weeks. Speaking to AFP, a Pakistani intelligence official refuted the accusation, calling it “absurd and senseless.”[10]

Militancy

• Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants threw hand-grenades and explosives into the offices of the Akakhel anti-Taliban militia in the Abdul Khwar area of Bara tehsil in Khyber agency late Monday night, injuring at least 14 members of the group. While a commander of Akakhel militia said seven LI militants were killed in retaliatory fire, an LI spokesman rejected the claim and said no militants were killed in the incident.[11]    

• Unidentified assailants killed three people in several incidents of “targeted killings” across Karachi. In the first incident, two armed motorcyclists killed a constable of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) at Quetta Hotel in Old Sabzi Mandi. Police also found the body of Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists at a shop near the Garden area police station and the body of a man reportedly belonging to the “Urdu-speaking community” near the Kalri police station.[12]

• Four children were injured in the Tank Khatra area of Khar district, Bajaur agency on Wednesday when an IED a boy mistook for scrap exploded in his hand. [13]

Osama bin Laden Informant

• Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) leaders, speaking at a press conference in Nowshera on Tuesday, demanded Dr. Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden, be sentenced to death for his acts of treason. A DPC leader said that handing Dr. Shakil Afridi over to the U.S. would be a “mistake,” and that Pakistan should give him “nothing less than a death sentence.”[14]