London: US President Barack Obama put off three times operations to kill world's most dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden before finally going ahead with the mission at the insistence of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a new book has claimed. Citing unnamed sources within the joint operations command, Rich Miniter, a former 'Wall Street Journal' and 'Washington Times' reporter, claims that three 'kill' missions were called off by Obama in...
08:57 PM, Aug 21, 2012
New Delhi: American M-4 assault rifles " used by the US Navy SEALS to eliminate Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden-- are being inducted into the Indian Army's Special Forces battalions for use in counter terrorists operations here. India had recently signed a deal with the US worth several crore Rupees for procuring these M-4 carbine rifles for the Army's eight Special Forces battalions, Army sources said. These guns have...
07:50 PM, Aug 05, 2012
Islamabad: Cash-strapped Pakistan has received $1.118 billion from the United States as reimbursement for its expenses on the war on terrorism, the first payment from the Coalition Support Fund since December 2010. The State Bank of Pakistan received the payment from the US on Thursday morning, SBP chief spokesman Syed Wasimuddin said on Thursday. The amount will be reflected in the foreign exchange reserves for next week, he said. Wasimuddin...
01:20 AM, Aug 03, 2012
Washington: Terror groups like Haqqani network and LeT continue to enjoy safe havens in Pakistan due to the country's inability to control its own territory though killings of big-wigs like Osama bin Laden and Ilyas Kashmiri have put al Qaeda on path of decline, a US report said on Tuesday. The 'Country Report on Terrorism 2011', released by the State Department, said portions of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA),...
04:21 AM, Aug 01, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have taken steps to declare as government property the plot of land where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden spent his final years before he was killed by American commandos. The government of northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has published notices in newspapers asking for objections to the land in the garrison town of Abbottabad being declared government property. The notices said any person opposed to the move should contact...
11:45 PM, Jul 20, 2012
Washington: A key American Senator on Tuesday threatened to force a vote on ending US aid to Pakistan unless a Pakistani doctor, who helped CIA trace Osama bin Laden, is released from prison. Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor this morning announcing his intention to force a Senate vote that, if passed, would strip Pakistan of all US foreign aid until Dr Shakil Afridi's recent 33-year prison sentence...
07:12 AM, Jul 18, 2012
Washington: Pakistan has asked the US not to "lionise" the doctor who helped in tracking down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad as he had no knowledge about his mission -- to aid the American spy agency in hunt for the elusive al-Qeada chief. "(Shakeel) Afridi was, number one, he had no knowledge that the goal that he was working for -- he knew he was contracting with a foreign intelligence...
10:20 PM, Jul 10, 2012
Melbourne: A Pakistani Brigadier harboured Osama bin Laden for years with the full knowledge of Pervez Musharraf at a time when the US was hunting for the elusive al Qaeda chief, former ISI head Gen Ziauddin Butt has claimed. Brigadier Ijaz Shah, a long-term close associate of former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, was the "most important and all-powerful person" in his regime, General Butt said in a television interview....
12:59 PM, Jul 09, 2012
London: India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Friday notched up a straight-set victory to advance to the third round of the women's doubles competition at the Wimbledon here. The 13th seeded Indo-US duo scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded French pair of Stephanie Foretz Gacon and Kristina Mladenovic in just 55 minutes at the All England Club here. Sania and Bethanie converted three of...
07:58 PM, Jun 29, 2012
Washington: US military and intelligence officials are so frustrated with Pakistan's failure to stop local militant groups from attacking Americans in neighbouring Afghanistan that they have considered launching secret joint US-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan to hunt them down, officials told The Associated Press. But the idea, which US officials say comes up every couple of months, has been consistently rejected because the White House believes the chance of successfully...
05:43 PM, Jun 22, 2012
Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief (PTI) Imran Khan, in an interview to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, said the relationship between the US and Pakistan is that of a master and client. He said Pakistan is "a hired gun, being paid to kill America's enemies". Talking about Osama bin Laden's assassination, Khan said the US operation on Pakistan's soil in May 2011 against bin Laden was the "ultimate humiliation" for the state,...
03:11 PM, Jun 20, 2012
Doha: A Qatari constructor, founded by a son of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has bolstered its bid to win contracts ahead of the 2022 soccer World Cup by forming a joint venture with Spain's Coprosa. Qatar Bin Laden Group will hold 51 per cent of the new company, BC Group - to be based in Doha - and Coprosa 49 per cent, chief executive Omar bin Laden...
02:24 AM, Jun 14, 2012
Washington: Pakistan's former ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, on Tuesday dismissed the memo commission's report and launched a veiled attack on the judiciary claiming the findings were made public to divert the attention from from "more embarrassing developments". The commission had concluded that Haqqani was behind a mysterious memo that sought US help to stave off a feared coup and said he was "not loyal" to the country while...
01:56 PM, Jun 12, 2012
New Delhi: A report submitted in Pakistan's Supreme Court by the judicial commission probing the Memogate scandal has claimed that former envoy to the United States Husain Haqqani had authored the confidential memo. Pakistan Supreme Court has directed Haqqani to appear before it in two weeks. The Supreme Court has issued the notices to all the respondents of memo scandal including Haqqani. It has adjourned the hearing in the memo...
11:11 AM, Jun 12, 2012
Washington/Islamabad: Al Qaeda's second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi, on whose head the US had put a bounty of $ 1 million, may have been killed in the latest CIA drone strike in Pakistan's lawless northwestern tribal region in which 15 militants had perished. Libi, considered the most-prominent figure in al Qaeda after Ayman al-Zawahiri, was the main target of the drone strike on Monday at a militant compound near the town...
11:01 PM, Jun 05, 2012
Peshawar/Dera Ismail Khan: Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of al-Qaeda's top strategists and seen as the most prominent figure in the network after leader Ayman al Zawahri, may have been killed in a drone strike in northwest Pakistan, the Pakistani intelligence officials said on June 5. If his death is confirmed it would be the biggest blow to al-Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid...
11:51 AM, Jun 05, 2012
Dubai: Osama bin Laden led a frugal life, spending all his personal wealth on attacks against the West and serving his guests good food, al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video posted online on Sunday. In the half-hour tape titled "Days with the imam, Part Two" a bespectacled Zawahiri, who took up the reins of al Qaeda after bin Laden's killing just over a year ago, fondly recalled...
02:36 AM, Jun 04, 2012
Cairo: Osama bin Laden spent all his personal wealth on jihad, considering meat and electricity as luxuries so he could save his money to help fund terror attacks, according to recollections from his deputy and successor posted online late on Saturday. Al-Qaeda's new leader Ayman al-Zawahri, in the second of his "Days with the Imam" series of videos, said that bin Laden would however pay readily for hospitality for his...
10:22 PM, Jun 03, 2012
Islamabad: Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, has refused to eat meals provided by the jail authorities in Peshawar fearing he may be poisoned. Sources told Geo News, Afridi has refused to eat prison food, and that on his demand, prison authorities have provided him with essential items and cooking utensils so that he could prepare his own food. Afridi...
12:38 PM, Jun 03, 2012
Islamabad: The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden faced accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing long before he was captured by Pakistani intelligence agents and then jailed for 33 years for treason. In interviews over the weekend, several current and former Pakistani officials described the doctor, Shakil Afridi, as a hard-drinking womaniser who had faced accusations of sexual assault, harassment and stealing. They said his main...
12:30 PM, May 29, 2012
