Pakistan Army boss Kayani, said the back of broken activists - Reuters Africa

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan military has broken the back of militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, powerful head of the country of the army, said in a speech Saturday that followed criticism on the part of the United States it was not done enough to combat militancy.

Washington, struggling to subdue a 10-year Afghanistan insurgency, said this month that Pakistan was missing a solid plan to defeat the militants, and intelligence agents have been maintaining links with the Afghan Taliban militants.

Without any reference to concerns of the State of Washington, armed Kayani Director General Ashfaq said armed Pakistan was fully aware of internal threats and external that face the country.

"In the war against terrorism, our officers and soldiers have made great sacrifices and were a huge success," he said in a speech to the army cadets at the Military Academy in Kakul, North of Islamabadbroadcast by State television.

"Backbone of the terrorists was broken and Inch Allah (if God wants) we will shortly prevail.".

Pakistan is essential to U.S. efforts to stabilize the Afghanistan, but relations between the two allies have been strained since the fatal shooting of two Pakistani by Raymond Davis, a CIA Contractor, in the city of Lahore in January.

Us and Pakistani representatives exchanged barbs publicly, reflecting the deep mistrust between the two countries.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army, said Pakistani media during a visit this week that the links between the officers of the Agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan and the Haqqani faction, one of the most brutal Taliban afghans, was "into the heart" of problems between the two countries.

Hours after criticism from Mullen, dismissed army suggestion that Pakistan was not enough to combat the militants as "negative propaganda".

However, despite the rise in the level of rhetoric, both parties have sought to repair ties because the other two need for their own reasons.

(Reported by Zeeshan Haider;) (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Allows us to provide Pakistan with 85 mini-drones - Reuters

* Order drone comes despite U.S. - Pakistani tensions.

Talks on a separate order of UAV in final phase

* Cooperation on border Afghans never better-Mullen (adds, details comments)

By Phil Stewart

(ISLAMABAD, April 21, Reuters) - the United States will provide Pakistan with 85 small "Raven" drone aircraft, a military official U.S. told Reuters, a key step to meet Islamabad calls for access to U.S. drone technology.

The official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity, refused to disclose the cost of the non-lethal surveillance aircraft, short distance, which is manufactured by American AeroVironment Inc (AVAV.)(O).

A spokesman for the company, said the Raven is used by the U.S., including the Norway, the Spain and the Italy allies and is one of the planes without pilot used more widely in the world.

Communication is another sign more and U.S. military assistance, Pakistan a crucial if often tense ally in the U.S. fight against al-Qaida and insurgents attacker U.S. forces in nearby Afghanistan.

Pakistan should receive approximately 3 billion dollars in US military aid in the coming year.

On Wednesday, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Army U.S. accused of intelligence of the country of having a relationship with Haqqani militants targeting forces us in Afghanistan.

The White House said in a report to the Congress published this month in Pakistan did not have a solid plan to defeat the militant Taliban and note its security forces are struggling to keep regions released veterans at great expense related to al-Qaida.

Still, the American military authorities also praised the increased efforts by the Pakistan army in recent years in the fight against insurgents and say cooperation at the tactical level on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border is greatly improved.

"It represents a level of coordination which is that it has never been better," Mullen said to journalists.

SHADOW UAVS?

The Raven, according to the website of the company, has a wingspan of only 1.4 (4.5 metres) and a weight of 1.9 kg (4.2 lb). It allows to provide in time real color or infrared imaging, giving troops the field ahead on the battlefield.

An official U.S. defence, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Raven drone order is separated from the U.S. plans to offer Pakistan surveillance drones has much more long-term, a proposal put forward by US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates during a visit to Pakistan in January 2010.

Offering Islamabad ravi at the time, but Pakistani officials say that these discussions were held to complaints regarding fees proposed by Washington and a slow timeline for delivery.

U.S. Defense official has proposed that the talks were nearing conclusion.

"We are in final discussions on which they really want." They think they want the shadows, "said the official of the U.S. defence."

Gates had offered at the origin of drones Pakistan 12 Shadow, manufactured by AAI Corporation, a unit of Textron Systems (TXT.)(N).

They are not militarized versions used by the CIA to follow and kill Taliban insurgents in Pakistan and al-Qaeda, but are strictly used for monitoring and the collection of information.

(Edited by Sophie hares)

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Deadly by us Drone strike can fuel anger in Pakistan - New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A us drone attack killed 23 people in North Waziristan, on Friday, Pakistani military officials said, in a strike against activists who seems to mean relentless pressure by the United States on military of Pakistan amidst increasing opposition to the strikes.

The strike came a day after the Chairman of the joint staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, met with Pakistani military Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and asked that Pakistan more to fight militants who use North Waziristan as a base to attack the United States and NATOthe Afghanistan forces.

The attack was the second show of determination of the United States to continue drone attacks since the head of the Agency of Pakistan, lieutenant-general Ahmed Shuja Pasha spy, met this month in Washington with Leon e. Panetta Director of Central Intelligence Agency to ask for an end to the strike.

Friday attack could further fuel anti-UAV among the Pakistani public sentiment. An official of the Government in the North Waziristan said Pakistani journalists in five children and four women were among the 23 who were killed.

Finger attack forces of a militant commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists across the border in Afghanistan to fight US troops and NATO, said the representative of the Government.

Mr. Bahadur works under a peace agreement with the Pakistani army who ensures that the militants under his control do not attack the Pakistani soldiers but to concentrate solely on Allied soldiers.

Those killed Friday were collected in Spinwam, an area near Mir Ali in North Waziristan which was become a hub for activists in recent months, the official said.

In the Crescent public war of nerves between the American and Pakistani armies, the Pakistani Government is allowing a planned anti-NATO protest to go ahead in Peshawar this weekend. A political leader, Imran Khan, asked the protesters to stage a sit-in Saturday to block trucks carrying NATO supplies for the war in Afghanistan. Trucks travel through Peshawar since the port of Karachi to Torkham, the gateway in Afghanistan.

The drone Friday strike came after that Admiral Mullen has delivered a particularly rigorous message during his visit here, said publicly that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, directly supported and encouraged spy agency the activists Haqqani network in North Waziristan. Activists of the network are responsible for a large number of us losses in Afghanistan, American commanders say.

Since long the network United States Haqqani was supported by the Pakistani spy agency, but he said rarely publicly.

In a separate episode, between the Pakistani army and the Taliban, 16 Pakistani Frontier Corps troops were killed Thursday when their checkpoint was invaded by 150 activists near the Afghanistan border, a Pakistani security official said.

The battle continued for 12 hours to Kharkai in the North of Dir district in the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa formerly Northwest Frontier Province. Two officers sent to reinforce troops were killed in an ambush, said the official.

The attack by militants of Pakistani soldiers came as the army launched a renewed assault in Mohmand, part of the tribal areas that have proven to be difficult for Pakistan to take army.

In a report to the Congress this month, the administration of the Obama complained that the Pakistani army had "no clear path" to the insurgency in Pakistan and quote the attempts to eradicate militants in Mohmand as an illustration. The army "was not for the third time in two years" to clear militants of Mohmand, said the report.

150 Activists who carried out the Thursday attack appeared to have fled the assault in Afghanistan and then returned to Pakistan to hit the soldiers.

General Kayani, the head of the Pakistani army, went to Mohmand Thursday for the second phase of a new assault on the Suran, a narrow valley on the border with the Afghanistan.

In the past months, the U.S. forces and NATO over the Mohmand border helped Pakistan to attack the militants as they fled in Afghanistan, Pakistani security officer, said. But the Pakistani militants who attacked in Dir Thursday appeared to have escaped before the assault on the Suran start and were allowed to return to Pakistan by elements of the Afghan army who were helping, the official said.

Jane Perlez reported in Islamabad and Ismail Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan.

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Attack drone "kills 12" Pakistan - BBC News

April 22, 2011, last updated 04: 44 GMT at least 12 people died in a drone strike in the troubled Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials told the BBC.

Four missiles were fired at a house in Spinwam, 40 km (25 miles) northeast of main town of Miranshah region tribal, said the officials.

The identities of the dead were not immediately obvious.

The region is a paradise for the Taliban and al-Qaida. More than 100 raids have been reported in the region last year.

Friday strike comes a day after the Pakistani army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said top army officer American, ADM Mike Mullen, that drone strikes "national" war of Pakistan complicated against the militants.

The missiles were fired at a compound of grand occupied by militants loyal to a local senior commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, said a local official.

Several people were injured in the attack on Friday, a local intelligence official was cited as a revealer of the AFP news agency.

The BBC Ilyas Khan in Islamabad, said there had been some drone attacks, in Spinwam which makes it a relatively safe place for activists who have been driven out of other militant strongholds in North Waziristan.

A strike in North Waziristan drone March 17 killed 40 people, think that most of them to be civilians attending a tribal meeting.

In rare public condemnation, Gen Kayani called the raid "unacceptable and unjustified."

Us drone attacks escalation of northwestern Pakistan because President Barack Obama took office.

They are extremely unpopular with the Pakistani public, say corresponding. Many activists, some of them senior, were killed in the raids, but hundreds of civilians have also died.

The United States do not routinely confirm he leads drone operations in Pakistan, but analysts say that American forces have the capability to deploy these aircraft in the region.

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