Blast by Pakistan Aid Office Wounds 1  11/21 10:14

   PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- An explosion struck the office of an aid 
organization in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border on Saturday, 
wounding a security guard, police said.

   It was the ninth attack in two weeks in and around Peshawar, the largest 
city in the northwest and the main gateway to the al-Qaida and Taliban-infested 
frontier region. The area has been increasingly targeted as militants retaliate 
against an army offensive aimed at routing Taliban militants from a nearby 
region.

   The bomb was set off with a timer at about 7 a.m. near the office's 
perimeter wall, said Liaquat Ali Khan, the police chief in Peshawar. The 
building belonging to Shift International, a group helping handicapped people, 
was damaged, he said.

   The blast came a day after two police officers were killed and four others 
were wounded in a roadside bombing in Peshawar. A suicide bomber also killed 19 
people in the city on Thursday.

   Pakistan expressed fear Friday that an increase of U.S. troop numbers in 
Afghanistan could push militants across the border into its territory and 
called on the Americans to factor in that concern as part of their new war 
strategy.

   The Pakistani concerns, raised by the prime minister during a meeting with 
visiting CIA director Leon Panetta, could pose another headache for President 
Barack Obama as he weighs military proposals to send 10,000 to 40,000 
additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year.

   Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the United States must fully share 
its plans for Afghanistan with Pakistan so that it can contribute to them, 
according to a statement from his office.

   The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the CIA director's visit to the 
country. American security and government leaders have frequently visited 
Pakistan in recent weeks to urge it to do more against militants on its side of 
the border blamed for violence inside Afghanistan.

   Pakistani officials have said in the past that they were worried that 
Obama's original surge of 21,000 troops this summer would lead to more 
militants crossing over into the country, something that has not happened.

   Also, U.S. plans to close remote posts near the border and instead focus on 
larger population centers in Afghanistan have sparked fears that militants will 
now find it easier to move between the two countries.

   Pakistan's government is under domestic pressure not to be seen simply 
taking orders from the United States and give the impression it has a say in 
any new Afghan policy. As such, Gilani's statement could have been as much 
directed at a local audience as to the Americans.

   Pakistan's army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South 
Waziristan in mid-October --- an effort welcomed by Washington. It has retaken 
many towns in the lawless region, but many militants are believed to have fled 
north to escape the fighting and have retaliated with deadly bombings and 
clashes.

   Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed Friday when 
militants ambushed their convoy in the North Waziristan area of Shawal, local 
intelligence officials said.

   A suspected U.S. missile strike also killed eight militants in a village 
elsewhere in northwestern Pakistan, intelligence officials said, the second 
attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents who fled from an 
army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region. American officials 
generally do not acknowledge the unpopular attacks.

   The U.S. drone fired two missiles at a compound being used by suspected 
Taliban militants in a village near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, according to 
two intelligence officials.

   The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't 
authorized to release the information

   Another suspected U.S. missile strike killed three militants and wounded 
four just after midnight Thursday in Shana Khuwara village in North Waziristan, 
officials said.

   Anti-American sentiment is pervasive throughout Pakistan. The Pakistani 
government publicly condemns the U.S. strikes as violations of its sovereignty, 
but many analysts believe the two countries have a secret deal allowing them.


(PH)