US missile strikes affect war on terror

Missile strikes carried out by the US on Damadola village near the Afghan border, killing 18 people, can fuel religious fanaticism in this country and seriously complicate President George W. Bush’s ‘war on terror’, say moderate political leaders and security analysts.

“Political realities in Pakistan needs to be better understood by the Americans. They could do with more consideration for the sentiments of a smaller power that America claims to be its ally,’’ B M Kutty, organising secretary of the Pakistan Workers Party, said. Many in this officially Islamic country of 150 million people are opposed to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s policy of supporting Washington’s war directed against the Al Qaeda network.

Indeed, the target was Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who, according to intelligence agencies, was expected to be present at the scene of the attack for a dinner to celebrate Eid festivities. It is not known if Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian national, died in the air strikes. But they have kicked up a storm of prot-ests across Pakistan. Attacks within Pakistan ‘’cannot be condoned,’’ said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, before emplaning last Tuesday for a weeklong visit to the US.

The civilian deaths at Damadola not only drew public protests but also call for the cancellation of Aziz’s visit to Washington that, according to an official note, would be to discuss issues within the ‘’framework of the growing strategic relations,’’ between the two countries. Loud protests and demands to call off the visit came especially from the fundamentalist Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance that has enormous influence in the tribal belt close to Afghan border and rules the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in which Damadola falls. Last Sunday, thousands of Pakistanis took part in anti-US protest rallies across the country. There were suggestions that Aziz would end up committing Pakistan to even more unp-opular compromises in US.

Pakistan is engaged in suppressing insurgency in the NWFP’s tribal areas. Last week, a Taliban suicide bomber killed many soldiers moving in a military convoy in the Kandhar area. Across the border, in Afghanistan, the US maintains some 20,000 troops that are supposed to coordinate with Pakistani forces under ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’, to mop up the ‘remnants’ of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban, but may not cross into Pakistani territory. However, US military aircraft have attacked and killed suspects through aerial action in the NWFP on several occasions angering the local population against the Musharraf regime and Washington.

The deliberate violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by a supposedly friendly military has been hard to swallow but, to make matters worse, US officials have not only defended the action but refused to provide guarantees that the attacks could be repeated.

The worry is that Pakistan could soon be left saddled with the job of reinforcing NATO troops especially in dangerous and outlying areas that NATO countries are reluctant to continue endangering their own troops. NATO, which maintains 9,000 personnel in Afghanistan and has since 2003, been running the International Security Assistance Force, did agree, last month, to send in 6,000 more troops to relieve 4,000 US soldiers. — IPS