For India, the report reaffirms the perception that Pakistan remains the “epicentre of terrorism”, if the immediate response of the Ministry of External Affairs is any indication.
June 6, 2020Troop levels will be cut to 8,600 over the next 135 days and five bases will be closed.
March 10, 2020President Trump‘s decision to withdraw forces stationed in Afghanistan has evoked critical responses from many strategists and generals. A report authored by James Dobbins, former President George Bush‘s special envoy to Afghanistan, has clearly said that, in the event of a precipitous withdrawal, the government in Kabul will lose influence and legal legitimacy, and terror groups such as Al Qaida and ISIS would be encouraged to intensify their attacks on various US targets.
February 14, 2019In retrospect, 9/11 was the defining moment of the re-engagement and recalibration of the US-Pak dynamics that till then were nestled in favour of Pakistan as a ‘major non-NATO ally’. After the Cold War ended in the 1990s, Pakistan had fallen off the immediate radar as Washington was busy meddling with the affairs of the …
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December 20, 2017With its veto power in the United Nations Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked attempts to designate the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, Masood Azhar as a global “terrorist” under the Council’s Al Qaida Sanctions Committee.. Even though the other members, notably the US, France and UK have backed the proposal, the Chinese have incredously maintained a “lack …
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November 28, 2017The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, driven out of Mosul and fighting a losing battle in Aleppo, has struck again in Europe. Thursday’s butchery in the Spanish town of Barcelona follows a chilling pattern ~ the use of vehicles is now a fairly established strategy of the Islamist fundamentalists not merely in Europe, but …
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August 19, 2017The situation in Afghanistan can be described as a stalemate at both the strategic and tactical levels. The security environment is precarious, socio-economic development is stagnating, and the reconciliation process has reached an impasse. The NATOISAF strategy to clear-hold-build-transfer-exit has succeeded only partially as the Taliban and the Al Qaida have not been eliminated and …
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April 24, 2017Two US drone strikes have killed at least seven suspected Al Qaida operatives in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib, a security official said on Wednesday. "Two Al Qaida leaders, Saleh al-Awlaki and Saeed Ba-Kadir, were targeted and killed along with five others in two separate airstrikes late on Tuesday night," the official told Xinhua news …
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April 19, 2017A day after Levant Swords rebel group said it was involved in the double bombing that killed 74 people, al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the attack on Shia pilgrims, a media report said on Sunday. Nusra front also claimed that the Shia Iraqis were not pilgrims to shrines in Damascus but fighters supporting the …
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March 12, 2017