Zawahiri urged Red Mosque incident
This comes from the Times Online, and it's backed up by British intel that Ayman al-Zawahiri had a hand in the Red Mosque fight in Islamabad last week:
AL-QAEDA’S leadership secretly directed the Islamic militants whose armed revolt at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended last week with more than 100 deaths after it was stormed by the Pakistan army.
According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah.
Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters ? including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans ? had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to teach students, including children, how to handle weapons.
Al-Qaeda has wanted to open a Pakistan front in its global jihad since President Pervez Musharraf sided with America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Diplomats were surprised by the speed with which the fugitive Zawahiri condemned the raid and called on Pakistanis to rise up against Musharraf.
The response to his appeal was equally swift. Twenty-seven soldiers were killed when a suicide attacker struck a military convoy in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border yesterday. At least 58 have been killed in bombings and shootings since the Red Mosque crisis began 12 days ago.
This weekend street protests were organised by religious parties as the government dispatched thousands more soldiers to its troubled North West Frontier province.
Some were sent to the Swat Valley, where a suicide car bomber killed three policemen last Thursday and a madrasah controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a militant mullah, is expected to be the next flashpoint. Fazlullah has been using a radio station to rally support for Al-Qaeda and has urged followers to arm themselves in preparation for a siege.
This is why Musharraf stated for the record a couple months ago that it was a mistake for his government to have negotiated a "truce" with the Taliban in southern Pakistan. It was realized when the Taliban, backed up by al Qaeda fighters, stormed into North Waziristan, and started executing tribal leaders. Musharraf knew he was dealing with the devil when he made this "truce," but he though he could negotiate with an enemy that hated him as much as they hate us. Now he knows, and now the world knows.
I hate to say that the world, and Pakistan, deserved this lesson, but just like politics is a zero-sum game, so is war. We win, they lose. Those that needed to learn that lesson again had better have paid attention to it this time. The next time, Zawahiri and his cronies just may succeed.
Publius II
AL-QAEDA’S leadership secretly directed the Islamic militants whose armed revolt at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended last week with more than 100 deaths after it was stormed by the Pakistan army.
According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah.
Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters ? including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans ? had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to teach students, including children, how to handle weapons.
Al-Qaeda has wanted to open a Pakistan front in its global jihad since President Pervez Musharraf sided with America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Diplomats were surprised by the speed with which the fugitive Zawahiri condemned the raid and called on Pakistanis to rise up against Musharraf.
The response to his appeal was equally swift. Twenty-seven soldiers were killed when a suicide attacker struck a military convoy in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border yesterday. At least 58 have been killed in bombings and shootings since the Red Mosque crisis began 12 days ago.
This weekend street protests were organised by religious parties as the government dispatched thousands more soldiers to its troubled North West Frontier province.
Some were sent to the Swat Valley, where a suicide car bomber killed three policemen last Thursday and a madrasah controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a militant mullah, is expected to be the next flashpoint. Fazlullah has been using a radio station to rally support for Al-Qaeda and has urged followers to arm themselves in preparation for a siege.
This is why Musharraf stated for the record a couple months ago that it was a mistake for his government to have negotiated a "truce" with the Taliban in southern Pakistan. It was realized when the Taliban, backed up by al Qaeda fighters, stormed into North Waziristan, and started executing tribal leaders. Musharraf knew he was dealing with the devil when he made this "truce," but he though he could negotiate with an enemy that hated him as much as they hate us. Now he knows, and now the world knows.
I hate to say that the world, and Pakistan, deserved this lesson, but just like politics is a zero-sum game, so is war. We win, they lose. Those that needed to learn that lesson again had better have paid attention to it this time. The next time, Zawahiri and his cronies just may succeed.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 8:35 PM
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