U.S.: Pakistan Not Cooperating in Air Strike Probe

WASHINGTON - Pakistan is refusing to take part in a U.S. military investigation of air strikes near the Afghan border that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead, the Pentagon said Dec. 2.

Pakistan was invited to cooperate in the probe into the Nov. 26 incident, which has enraged Islamabad and plunged U.S.-Pakistani relations into crisis, but officials have declined to do so.

"They have elected to date not to participate, but we would welcome their participation," said Pentagon press secretary George Little.

U.S. officials expected a refusal given the fury in Pakistan following the incident, which led Islamabad to block NATO supply convoys on its border and boycott an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn set for Dec. 2.

The United States has voiced regret over the strikes but has stopped short of issuing an apology while the American military conducts the investigation.

"It's safe to say that the incident has had a chilling effect on our relationship with the Pakistani military, no question about that," spokesman Capt. John Kirby told reporters.

"Both sides deem it to be as serious as it was."

U.S. commanders and intelligence chiefs have long sought to cultivate relations with Pakistan's army, the country's most powerful institution, but the air strikes have caused outrage among the army's junior officers and fed popular resentment of Washington.

The Pakistani army called the strikes a "deliberate act of aggression" but U.S. officials have declined to discuss publicly what transpired at two Pakistani border posts.

Kirby suggested the U.S. military would review its operations and tactics for forces stationed in eastern Afghanistan in the aftermath of the deadly strikes.

"Clearly, an incident like this causes you - and should cause you - to take a step back and look at how you're doing things and whether there need to be improvements made or any kind of tactical decisions ...(to) do things a little differently," Kirby said.

"And General (John) Allen is doing that," he said, referring to the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Asked about reports that Pakistan's army has ordered troops to retaliate immediately if fired on, Kirby said that "every sovereign nation has the right of self-defense and the right to order their troops to defend themselves."

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, reported Dec. 2 that Pakistan approved the air strikes that killed their troops, unaware that its forces were in the area.

But at the Pentagon news conference, Kirby declined to confirm or deny the report.

U.N. to Join Hunt for Rogue Weapons in Libya

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council added the hunt for rogue surface-to-air missiles and other weapons in Libya to the duties of the U.N. mission in the country on Dec. 2.

The 15-member council unanimously passed a resolution extending the mandate of the mission, which has mainly been giving political support to Libya's transitional government.

Growing concern over the weapons caches - particularly thousands of shoulder-fired rocket launchers - left by late dictator Moammar Gadhafi led to the extension of the mission's duties.

Libya's neighbors have expressed fears that the weapons and ammunition could get into the hands of radical groups. The U.N. envoy to Libya, Ian Martin, said this week that a "reliable picture" of all the weapons sites and numbers is still lacking.

The resolution said the mission will now assist "Libyan national efforts to address the threats of proliferation of all arms and related material of all types, in particular man-portable surface to air missiles."

The Libya mission was provisionally extended until March 16 to give the U.N. leadership time to set out its needs for a long-term operation.

2 More 'Physiological Incidents' Related to F-22

The U.S. Air Force's fleet of stealthy F-22 Raptor fifth-generation fighters has suffered two additional "physiological incidents" since Nov. 21, the service confirmed Dec. 2.

"Since 21 Nov., there have been two physiological incidents and no events of interest," said Air Combat Command spokeswoman Kelly Sanders in an emailed statement.

Since the F-22 returned to flight in September after a four-month grounding, the Air Force has maintained two listings for problems arising from operating the jet. The jet was originally grounded in May after more than a dozen pilots suffered symptoms resembling hypoxia.

"Under the current protocols established to monitor F-22 operations since their return to flight, occurrences are categorized into events of interest and physiological incidents," Sanders wrote. "An event of interest is an aircraft indication, system malfunction or a data point that has not caused symptoms of hypoxia nor caused any danger to the pilot or aircraft, but is noteworthy for data collection and further analysis."

However, because of the Raptor's unresolved oxygen system problems, a separate category has been established for incidents that resemble hypoxia.

"Any event of hypoxia or hypoxia-like symptoms during pre-flight activities or a mission would be categorized by Air Force Instructions as a physiological incident," Sanders wrote.

She noted that none of the most recent incidents caused any damage. Air Force sources who tipped off Defense News to these events had alluded to ground crews becoming ill when performing maintenance operations with the engines running. An Air Force official confirmed that was the case with a separate incident. However, the two most recent cases Air Combat Command referred to happened in the air.

"None of these incidents resulted in harm to a person or aircraft," Sanders wrote. "There is a rigorous process of collecting and analyzing operational, maintenance, and physiological data relevant to any incidents, which typically takes several weeks to complete and may or may not produce actionable information."

India Launches Major Land Exercise

NEW DELHI - One of the Indian Army's largest land exercises is underway near the border with Pakistan in the northern state of Rajasthan.

Code-named Sudarshan Shakti, the exercise includes more than 50,000 soldiers, 500 armored vehicles, including battle tanks, as well as Air Force fighter jets and combat helicopters.

Indian President Pratibha Patil on Dec. 5 is scheduled to review the exercises, mounted by the Southern Army headquarters in Pune.

In addition to T-72 tanks, the Russian-made T-90 and the indigenous Arjun tank are also participating.

The Air Force is fielding its Russian-made Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet, MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighter jets, airborne warning and control systems and UAVs purchased from Israel, and a variety of helicopters.

The exercise is being led by troops from Bhopal-based Army 21 Corps, also known as Sudarshan Chakra Corps.

The exercise is using network-centric warfare tactics that have been adopted by the Army over the last two to three years, said a senior Army official. The exercise will test the coordination between the India's air and land forces.

Prosecutor Seeks Arrest of Sudan Defense Minister

THE HAGUE - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked judges Dec. 2 for an arrest warrant for Sudan's defense minister for crimes committed in Darfur, his office said.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court "to issue an arrest warrant against the current Sudanese Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur from August 2003 to March 2004," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Khartoum's interior minister at the time, Hussein is wanted for coordinating attacks against civilians in at least six villages in western Darfur.

The villages were surrounded, bombed by the Sudanese air force, and then attacked by a combined force of Sudanese troops and Janjaweed militia.

"The evidence shows that this was a state policy supervised by Mr. Hussein to ensure the coordination of attacks against civilians," the statement said.

If granted, the warrant would bring to six the number of suspects on the run or being prosecuted before the court in The Hague for crimes committed in Darfur.

It's highest profile suspect is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, wanted on three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes for his role in the conflict.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died since conflict broke out in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime for a greater share of resources and power.

Moreno-Ocampo accuses Bashir of having personally instructed his forces to annihilate three ethnic groups - the Fur, the Masalit and the Zaghawa.

The prosecutor says 4 million people have been uprooted from their homes, of whom at least 100,000 died of causes related to their displacement, such as starvation.

Nato plans to quell Pakistan-based insurgents: Guardian

General John Allen, commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). - AP (File Photo)

LONDON: Nato commanders are planning a substantial offensive in eastern Afghanistan aimed at insurgent groups based in Pakistan, involving an escalation of aerial attacks on insurgent sanctuaries, and have not ruled out cross-border raids withground troops, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
The aim of offensive over next two years is to reduce threat represented by Pakistan-based groups loyal to insurgent leaders like Haqqani clan, Mullah Nazir & Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Nato hopes to reduce level of attacks in the eastern provinces clustered around Kabul to the point where they could be contained by Afghan security forces after transition in 2014. The move is likely to add to already tense atmosphere following recent border post attack by Nato helicopters that resulted in death of 24 Pakistani soldiers.
While drawing down forces in Helmand & Kandahar, the US will step up its presence in eastern provinces bordering Pakistan, bringing long-festering issue of insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan tribal areas to a head. Message being given to Pakistan military is that if it cannot or will not eliminate insurgent havens, US forces will attempt job themselves, report said.
It is unclear to what extent killing of 24 Pakistan soldiers in Nato air strikes last Saturday will have on Nato strategy. An investigation is underway into the incident. As a consequence, Pakistan closed supply routes used by Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and barred the US from using a Pakistani air base to launch drones.
Isaf commander, General John Allen, said the need to confront sanctuaries in Pakistan was “one of the reasons we are shifting our operations to the east”.
In an interview in Kabul, Allen, a US marine, did not give specifics of strategy and said nothing about cross-border operations.
According to The Guardian, Allen said he did not know what long-term consequences of last Saturday’s clash would be, describing it as a “tragedy”, but made clear that push to the east would continue.
“Ultimately outcome we hope to achieve in the east is a reduction of insurgent networks to the point where Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) can handle them, reducing them in 2012, if necessary going after them in 2013,” Allen said.
“I won’t go into specifics of operations but as we consolidate our holdings in the south and as population centers there in Helmand River valley and in (Kandahar,) we will conduct substantial operations in the east idea being to expand security zone around Kabul. In particular we are going to pay lot of attention to south of Kabul, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni, Zabul.
Because in the end if you have a population in the south that feels secure and it’s secured by ANSF, and you have a population in east and around centre of gravity of Kabul, and those two are connected by a road so you have freedom of movement, you have a pretty good outcome.
”

EU May Use Brussels HQ for Horn of Africa Ops

BRUSSELS - EU foreign affairs ministers are considering using a civil-military headquarters in Brussels for small-scale operations off the Horn of Africa.

In conclusions to their meeting here Dec. 1, they say they have agreed "to accelerate planning for the activation of an EU Civil-Military Operations Centre for Horn of Africa operations, at the latest by the next Foreign Affairs Council."

The next EU affairs meeting is scheduled for late January. Currently EU operations have their HQs in individual member states.

According to an EU ministers statement, "When the nature of the operation does not require a national HQ, the Council stands ready to activate on an ad-hoc basis the Operations Centre in accordance with its terms of reference for a specific Common and Security Defence Policy [CSDP] Operation."

The decision appears to signal a U-turn in the U.K.'s stance on the issue. Back in the summer, Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, proposed an EU HQ for planning and carrying out EU military and civil missions abroad. In July, U.K. Foreign Affairs Minister William Hague said, "the U.K. will block any such move now and in the future."

The EU is currently running two operations in the Horn of Africa - the Atalanta counterpiracy mission and the EU training mission in Somalia. The Brussels' operations center may be used for any new, small-scale contributions to the Horn of Africa, such as building regional maritime capacity, said an official from the EU's Military Staff.

Where the EU has an existing command structure, such as Atalanta at the Northwood HQ in the U.K., an official from the EU Military Staff said "there is no intention of changing a working system on conduct.

"For Atalanta in particular, they are extremely well-placed in Northwood - allowing synergies with the NATO counterpiracy operation - and the scale of the command is far outside of the capacity of the Brussels' operations center," he added.

"We need to help regions [off the Horn of Africa] conduct counterpiracy themselves," Lt. Gen. Ton Van Osch, director-general of the European Union Military Staff, told Defense News in an interview. "A new line of EU action is to help countries develop their own coast guards and navies. Here, the EU military could do the training as part of a civilian mission if the political and security committee decided on a mission."

In the interview, Van Osch gives his views on various issues, including pooling and sharing proposals relating to air-to-air refueling and smart munitions.

On pooling and sharing, ministers recalled "the need to develop cooperation on military capabilities on a longer term and more systematic basis," and stressed the need "to further examine the impact of reduced defense spending on capabilities, including its possible impact on key industrial and technological capacities to be maintained and developed in Europe."

The ministers also encouraged further coordination between the European Defence Agency and the European Commission, "in particular in the field of Research and Technology, in particular regarding the new European Framework Programme for Research and Technology (Horizon 2020)."

They also recalled the commitment of the EU defense chiefs to establish or widen collaborative pooling and sharing projects by mid-2012, urged member states to take on the role of lead nation for concrete projects, and "will assess the progress made in April 2012."

They also stressed "the need to further analyze and address the constraints related to the availability, usability and deployability of existing military capabilities in CSDP operations and missions."

In addition, they bemoaned the fact that, in the first semester of 2012, "only one [EU] battlegroup will be on stand-by" and called for "efforts in order to remedy such shortfalls in the future."