US TERUS BEDIL PEJUANG ISLAM DI SEMPADAN AFGHAN-PAKISTAN

US dalam ketenatan krisis ekonomi tetap terus menyerang pejuang-pejuang Al Qaeda. Beberapa siri serangan telah dilakukan sejak beberapa bulan lalu. Presiden Pakistan yang baru Asif Ali Zardari sama seperti Pervez Musharraf terus membiarkan tentera US membedil ummat Islam yang tidak berdosa.

Sampai begitu keji sekali pengkhianatan pemimpin ummat Islam. Mereka menjadi agen kufar, menerapkan hukum kufur, menentang usaha menegakkan khilafah dan malah merelakan ummat Islam dibunuh oleh tentera kufar.Kita sangat memerlukan seorang khalifah yang memayungi seluruh ummat Islam dibawah panji Khilafah Islamiah. Sebagaimana sabda Rasulullah saw "imam (ibarat) perisai, (ummat islam) berperang dibelakangnya dan berlindung" (Hadith Riwayat Imam Muslim)


U.S. takes to air to hit militants inside Pakistan
International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: The White House has backed away from using American commandos for further ground raids into Pakistan after furious complaints from its government, relying instead on an intensifying campaign of airstrikes by the Central Intelligence Agency against militants in the Pakistani mountains.

According to American and Pakistani officials, attacks by remotely piloted Predator aircraft have increased sharply in frequency and scope in the pasti three months.Through Sunday, there were at least 18 Predator strikes since the beginning of August, some deep inside Pakistan's tribal areas, compared with 5 strikes during the first seven months of 2008.

At the same time, however, officials said that relying on airstrikes alone, the United States would be unable to weaken Al Qaeda's grip in the tribal areas permanently. Within the government, advocates of the ground raids have argued that only by sending Special Operations forces into Pakistan can the United States successfully capture suspected operatives and interrogate them for information about top Qaeda leaders.The decision to focus on an intensified Predator campaign using Hellfire missiles appears to reflect dwindling options on the part of the White House for striking a blow against Al Qaeda in the Bush administration's waning days.After months of debate within the administration and mounting frustration over Pakistan's failure to carry out more aggressive counterterrorism operations, President George W. Bush finally gave his approval in July for ground missions inside Pakistan.But the only American ground mission known to have taken place was a Special Operations raid on Sept. 3, in which the roughly two dozen people killed included some civilians.

American officials say there has not been another commando operation since.American officials acknowledge that following the Sept. 3 raid they were surprised by the intensity of the Pakistani response, which included an unannounced visit to Washington, three weeks after the incursion, by the country's national security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani. He registered his anger in person with top White House officials.

A senior administration official said Sunday that no tacit agreement had been reached to allow increased Predator strikes in exchange for a backing off from additional American ground raids, an option the officials said remained on the table. But Pakistani officials have made clear in public statements that they regard the Predator attacks as a less objectionable violation of Pakistani sovereignty."There's always a balance between respecting full Pakistani sovereignty, even in places where they're not capable of exercising that sovereignty, and the need for our force protection," said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Top American officials have justified the Sept. 3 ground raid as a self-defense response against militants who use havens in Pakistan to launch attacks against American and allied forces in Afghanistan. Those attacks have increased by about 30 percent from a year ago, according to military officials.As part of the intensified attacks in recent months, the CIA has expanded its list of targets in Pakistan and has gained approval from the government there to bolster eavesdropping operations in the border region, according to United States officials.Once largely reserved for missions to kill senior Arab Qaeda operatives, the Predator is increasingly being used to strike Pakistani militants and even trucks carrying rockets to resupply fighters in Afghanistan.Many of the Predator strikes are taking place as deep as 25 miles into Pakistani territory, not just along the border.Spokesmen for the White House and the CIA declined to comment for this article.The information about the American operations inside Pakistan was described in interviews by a dozen military and civilian officials from the United States and Pakistan, who insisted on anonymity because of diplomatic concerns and because details remained classified.

While Pakistan is now headed by a new civilian government, under President Asif Ali Zardari, the tense discussions between the countries over counterterrorism operations appear to echo at least some of the uneasiness that long characterized the partnership between Bush and Pervez Musharraf, the former president. He was defeated in parliamentary elections in February and left office in August.Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, told the Council on Foreign Relations this month that the two nations were cooperating in deploying "strategic equipment that is used against specific targets."On Oct. 16, a Predator strike in South Waziristan killed Khalid Habib, a senior Qaeda operative. But the strikes sometimes have unintended consequences. On Sept. 8, one in Miranshah on a compound owned by a Taliban leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, failed to kill him but did kill women and children. On Aug. 27, a Predator strike near the village of Wana missed its target; it is unclear whether civilians were killed.