Washington: Ruling out establishing a military base or having permanent boots on the ground in Maldives, a top Obama Administration official has said that the US has consulted India on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which it is currently negotiating with the island nation.
"We do not have any plans to have a military presence in Maldives," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told PTI in an interview, adding that Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is an effort to provide a framework to the ongoing joint military exercises that the US has with Maldives.
"I want to reassure everybody that this SOFA does not imply some new uptick in military co-operation or certainly does not apply any new military presence. It would just be to support our ongoing activities," Blake said when asked about the concerns being raised in both India and Sri Lanka after a Maldivian news website reported about it and posted an alleged leaked copy of the draft SOFA agreement running into eight pages.
Blake, could not verify the authenticity of the alleged draft of the SOFA agreement posted by a Maldivian news website....
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12:58 PM, May 07, 2013
Among some British Muslims, Osama bin Laden was a hero and his killing by the US forces, a bitter blow. ...
09:57 AM, May 02, 2012
New York: The US military has decided that none of its soldiers involved in a NATO airstrike in November last year that had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers will face disciplinary charges, an incident that had plunged the bilateral ties to a new low. A second inquiry to determine whether any American military personnel should be held accountable for the incident concluded that the Americans fired in self-defence and should not...
11:16 AM, Mar 26, 2012
Kandhar: Western forces shot dead 16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, in a rampage that witnesses said was carried out by American soldiers who were laughing and appeared drunk. One Afghan father who said his children were killed in the shooting spree accused soldiers of later burning the bodies. Witnesses told Reuters they saw a group of US soldiers arrive at their...
10:59 PM, Mar 11, 2012
Kabul: The US apologised on Tuesday for the burning of Muslim holy books that had been pulled from the shelves of a detention center library adjoining a major base in eastern Afghanistan because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. The White House echoed military officials in saying that the burning of Qurans and other Islamic reading material that had been tossed in a pile of garbage was an accident. But...
11:31 AM, Feb 22, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistani security forces on Saturday took control of a strategically important airbase in the country's southwest after US military personnel vacated the facility in line with a demand from the Pakistan government. Pakistan had asked the US to vacate Shamsi airbase in Balochistan province after a cross-border NATO attack on two border posts killed 24 soldiers on November 26. The US had been using the airbase since late 2001...
10:29 PM, Dec 10, 2011
Islamabad: The US has moved hundreds of new troops to the Afghan area bordering Pakistan's insurgent-infested North Waziristan tribal region along with heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and sealed movement on the border. According to local media reports, US forces deployed to new positions in the border areas facing Ghulam Khan in Pakistan between Saturday and Sunday night. The troops occupied nearby vantage heights on hilltops, setting up observation posts, The...
12:48 PM, Oct 17, 2011
Washington: The United States still intends to withdraw some 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by 2012. The announcement was made by President Barack Obama in a letter to the US Congress. Obama also claimed that his administration had reversed the Taliban momentum. "We have seen great progress in our fight against al Qaeda; we have reversed the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan; and we continue to see progress in training the Afghan...
09:03 AM, Oct 01, 2011
Washington: As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al Qaeda was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements. Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United...
03:37 PM, Jun 24, 2011
Washington: Tiny but highly sophisticated cameras installed on the helmets of the Navy SEALs, who raided Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in Pakistan on a pitch dark night, are helping the CIA to reconstruct the entire 40 minute, second by second, and is providing invaluable inputs about the al-Qaeda chief, a media report said on Friday. Tiny helmet cameras, worn by each of the 25 SEALs, are helping officials to...
09:49 AM, May 13, 2011
Islamabad: The United States says it wants to talk to the three widows of Osama bin Laden, who are in Pakistani custody. National security adviser Tom Donilon says information from them could help answer questions about whether Pakistani authorities helped hide the al Qaeda leader while he was on the run. He made the comments in an interview broadcast on Sunday NBC's "Meet the Press." Bin Laden was shot dead...
08:11 PM, May 08, 2011
CIA Chief Leon Panetta said, they feared Pakistani Officials would alert the target if they were involved. ...
09:26 AM, May 05, 2011
Sagarika Ghose asks a panel of experts if India could ever stage an Operation Geronimo? ...
07:14 AM, May 05, 2011
Islamabad: The Jamaat-ud-Dawah, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has taken the lead in arranging events to honour Osama bin Laden, organising funeral prayers for the al-Qaida chief in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi. JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, described by Indian officials as the mastermind of the assault on Mumbai, himself led activists in offering funeral prayers in absentia for bin Laden at the group's headquarters...
09:18 PM, May 04, 2011
Osama bin Laden was killed in his mansion in Abbottabad near Islamabad. The operation was called 'Geronimo'. ...
08:44 AM, May 04, 2011
Sagarika Ghose asks a panel of experts if Osama bin Laden can become an Islamic martyr? ...
07:01 AM, May 04, 2011
The video takes you inside Osama Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabaad, Pakistan. ...
11:13 PM, May 03, 2011
Washington: As many as 79 crack US commandos in four helicopters flew into Pakistan's Abbottabad city on a moonless night to take out Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a single shot to the world's most wanted man's head completed their mission. New York Times quoted officials as saying that the American commandos in four choppers arrived at the $1 million mansion where Osama was hiding. The US Navy...
02:16 PM, May 03, 2011
Washington: Soon after shooting dead Osama bin Laden, one of the US commandos took out a camera and clicked the Al Qaeda leader's picture. This was promptly uploaded and sent to analysts to confirm that it was indeed the world's most wanted man, a media report said. New York Times reported that a member of the US Navy Seals clicked Osama's photograph with a camera and sent it to analysts...
02:07 PM, May 03, 2011
Washington: When one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted aides picked up the phone last year, he unknowingly led US pursuers to the doorstep of his boss, the world's most wanted terrorist. That phone call, recounted Sunday by a US official, ended a years-long search for bin Laden's personal courier, the key break in a worldwide manhunt. The courier, in turn, led US intelligence to a walled compound in northeast...
07:35 AM, May 03, 2011
