The Pakistan Taliban on Sunday claimed to have shot down a US Predator drone in in North Waziristan’s Hamzoni village near Miramshah and got hold of its wreckage.

North Waziristan is said to be the stronghold of Jalaluddin Haqqani and Sirajuddin Haqqani who the US says have been organizing and staging attacks on US and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Government and military officials in Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan, confirmed that a drone had crashed somewhere on the Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border but they did not know about the cause of the incident.

They, however, said seven US drones were flying over the town on Sunday. In some of the areas, officials said, the drones were seen flying at a low altitude due to cloudy weather.

An official confirmed the plane crash, but didn’t agree that the Taliban would have shot down the spy aircraft. “There is possibility that the plane might have crashed due to a technical fault and the militants claimed responsibility just for boosting the morale of their people. They often do such things,” the official argued.

Other government officials, however, said the militants had installed some heavy weapons on hilltops and that they might have shot down the pilotless plane. “They have well-trained people for such types of job,” a senior official said but wished not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the militants used to fire at the US drones before but they were never able to hit and destroy the spy planes.

“We certainly know militants possess some heavy weapons such as anti-aircraft guns for shooting down the plane,” military sources in Miramshah said.

On the other hand, sources among the Taliban led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur claimed they had fired at and destroyed the unmanned aircraft. Taking to The News from North Waziristan, the Taliban said they possessed the weapons required for downing the aircraft. They said anti-aircraft guns were used in downing the CIA-operated spy plane.

The militants also claimed their men were now in possession of wreckage of the destroyed drone and would show it to the media. They said the drones were flying at a low altitude and shots were fired at one of the drones from anti-aircraft guns installed on a mountain peak.

“It is our big success against our enemy today. Now they will shoot down more such planes,” an excited militant commander told The News by phone. If true, it would be the second US spy aircraft downed in the tribal areas of Pakistan so far.

Earlier in September 2008, the Taliban had claimed shooting down a US drone in South Waziristan. Later, the US forces in Afghanistan confirmed that their spy plane had crashed in the area.

Karachi City police chief Wasim Ahmed confirmed Sunday the arrest of four alleged terrorists involved in carrying out Karachi Ashura blast in which more than 50 people were killed and scores injured.

The accused were held with the help of mobile phone SIMs found at the blast site on M A Jinnah Road.

The city police chief disclosed this at a press conference at Central Police Office of Karachi.

Mr Ahmed said intelligence agencies detained four alleged terrorists two days ago, from Bin Qasim town in connection with the Karachi Ashura blast.

Detainees include mastermind Qari Ahmed and three of his accomplice who belong to a banned religious outfit “Jundullah” also known as “Jundallah”. Explosives have also been recovered from their possession, he said.

According to Wikipedia: Jundallah means Soldiers of God‎ or People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI) not to be confused with People’s Mujahedin of Iran, is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization based in Balochistan that claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. It was founded and is currently under the command of Abdolmalek Rigi. It is believed to have 1,000 fighters and claims to have killed 400 Iranian soldiers and many more civilians. It is a part of the Baloch insurgency in Pakistan and in Iran’s Baluchistan Province. The group started under the name of Jundallah and later renamed itself as the People’s Resistance Movement of Iran. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by Iran, which accuses the group of being behind numerous acts of terror, kidnapping and smuggling narcotics. It has been alleged by Iran to have been in receipt of support from the US government.

Jundullah is also accused of involvement in an attack on Karachi corps commander’s convoy during Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf’s regime. The said Sunni outfit is also said to be involved in at least two attacks in Iran behind Iran-Pakistan western border.

The latest arrest was made with the help of mobile phone SIMs, recovered from the site of the blast.

NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial

For years, Pakistan’s leaders denied that extremists — in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan — posed a mortal threat to their country. After the Pakistani Taliban got within 60 miles of Islamabad last April they decided that they had no choice but to fight back. They were right. Unfortunately, their understanding of self-interest seems to stop at a border that the Taliban certainly does not respect.

During his visit to Pakistan this week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed Pakistan’s military leaders to open a new front against Afghan militants using Pakistani territory to stage attacks into Afghanistan — and was promptly rebuffed.

Displaying an alarming denial about the nature and urgency of the threat, an Army spokesman said there would be no offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan — where the Afghan Taliban are based — for at least six months and perhaps as long as 12 months. Given the speed and virulence with which the extremists have spread their hatred and violence in the past year, that’s too long to wait.

To its credit, Pakistan’s Army has mounted big offensives against Pakistani Taliban factions in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan and paid a steep price: losing 2,000 soldiers in battle. It may need some time to solidify these gains and prepare a new assault. But that is almost certainly not the real reason behind the delay.

Pakistan’s Army and spy service helped create the Afghan Taliban, and even now they see the group as a proxy force to limit India’s influence in Afghanistan once the Americans leave. That is truly playing with fire.

Pakistan’s failure to pressure both Taliban groups could doom President Obama’s military and political offensive in Afghanistan — or force him to make good on his threat to go after militants in the Pakistan border region if Islamabad does not. This is not just America’s fight. As Mr. Gates warned this week, extremist groups on the border are interconnected and determined to destabilize the entire region.

Pakistan cannot afford to give the Afghan Taliban a pass, and Washington must make sure that Islamabad faces up to that reality. Mr. Gates tried to nudge Pakistan when he spoke publicly about how Islamabad cannot “ignore one part of this cancer and pretend it won’t have some impact closer to home.” We hope he was firmer in private.

Mr. Gates and other officials are working hard to persuade Islamabad that the United States will not repeat past mistakes and abandon Pakistan as it did after the Soviets withdrew 20 years ago.

The Obama administration’s decision this week to grant Pakistan’s longstanding request for aerial spy drones (unarmed, at Washington’s insistence) should help bridge the “trust deficit.” Washington must also do more to help lessen tensions between Pakistan and India. That may be the best chance of persuading Islamabad that it can and must focus more of its troops and attention on fighting all of the Taliban.

New York: US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan (Af-Pak) Richard Holbrooke has said that India is ‘important’ for America’s success in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Underlying “India’s role in Afghanistan” in the newly emerging Indo-US strategic partnership, the Af-Pak envoy told US lawmakers, “I want to be sure that everyone here recognises how centrally important India will be to this (the US success in Afghanistan and Pakistan).”

Holbrooke was addressing lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Holbrooke, who visited India recently, told the hearing, which was convened by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Senator (D) John Kerry, that even though New Delhi is not part of his mandate, it is important to keep it informed about the situation in the troubled Af-Pak region.

“I don”t think it would be valuable to go into details in the public forum, but I do want to stress that the Indians are very, very anxious that we succeed in Afghanistan. They”re supporting us,” Holbrooke said.

He also discussed the numerous projects being carried out by India in Afghanistan.

“They are giving Afghanistan a lot of aid, particularly in the field of agriculture, which is also our primary non-security priority,” Holbrooke said.

The latest Kabul attack comes two weeks before the January 28 conference on Afghanistan in UK.

It demonstrates Taliban’s ability to cause mayhem at a time when the planned conference is to be held and at a time when US President Barack Obama is trying to rally support for an expanded military mission to fight them.

Sixty nations are expected to meet in London to decide the future of Afghanistan, reminiscent of the famous Geneva Conference two decades back that decided the fate of Afghanistan after Soviet pullout in 1988.

At least 14 people were killed in the fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack that was led by at least seven suicide bombers, reports say.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was swearing in new members of his cabinet at the time of the raid.

The attack set off explosions and sparked a gun battle between the Taliban and Afghan security forces near the Serena Hotel and the presidential palace.

Around 20 Taliban fighters were involved, reports have emerged.

This is the latest in a series of increasingly brazen attacks on Kabul

Reaffirming her full support for US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, PPP Central Secretary Information Fouzia Wahab on Friday underlined that everyone must think before he speaks against the US as it had given us a lot and in return we ought to respect it thick and thin.

Fouzia expressed the views while talking to the media after her meeting with Richard Holbrooke in the capital Islamabad.

Except one member, no other party member asked Holbrooke about the new policy of screening Pakistani passengers at the US airports and drone attacks in Pakistan, she emphasized.

Fouzia accepted the claim of Holbrooke about the anti-US sentiments that exist in the minds of Pakistanis.

She said that relations between US and Pakistan were more than four decades old and “we have seen many ups and downs in this period. The US must be given top priority for doing so many things for Pakistan and we must not disrespect it,” Fouzia held.

Don’t blame the US for what is happening in Pakistan, she said. The US is standing with us and has been helping Pakistan in different fields including that of war against terrorism, she added.

Fouzia further added that despite giving us plenty of financial aid we are against the US which is beyond her imagination. (News sourced from TheNation)

Holbrooke displeased by media criticism against US

LAHORE: US special envoy Richard Holbrooke has expressed displeasure over the Pakistani media’s criticism of the US, and conveyed his concerns to Pakistani politicians, reported a private TV channel on Friday.

According to the channel, PML-N leader Tehmina Daultana said Holbrooke got upset when politicians started criticising the US at a meeting with the US envoy.

PPP Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab said Holbrooke had been upset by the lack of acknowledgment of positive steps taken by the US for Pakistan.

Key leaders of the ruling and opposition parties who met Holbrooke included ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, PPP Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab, MQM leader Farooq Sattar, the PML-Q’s Salim Saifullah Khan, Aftab Sherpao, and PML-N leaders Tehmina Daultana, Khurram Dastagir and Muhammad Ishaq Dar.

Senator Ishaq Dar later said the politicians at the meeting told Holbrooke that the US should contribute substantially in mega projects for energy.

However, Holbrooke said the Pakistani media should acknowledge the US role in Pakistan’s development, to allow Obama administration to show the US Congress the Pakistani response. He said acknowledgment of the US role would help get more aid for Pakistan.

Separately, addressing reporters at Parliament House, Asfandyar said, “We appreciate the visit by US special envoy Richard Holbrooke to Swat and his government’s humanitarian assistance for development. He said the US commitment to rebuild Swat was a sign that “they are serious about helping the country defeat the militants”.

However, he said Pakistan’s concerns over US drone attacks and new screening measures had been expressed at the politicians’ meeting with Holbrooke. (News sourced from the Daily Times)

A MUST WATCH: PAK-US relations past and present; Pros and Con of Pakistan joining the War on Terror. Guests: Syed Munawwar Hasan (Ameer Jamaat Islami), Haji Adeel (ANP), Imtiaz Alam (Sr Analyst)..

NOTE: Below is an Op-ED by Nicholas Schmidle on Dr Shireen Mazari and her views as it appeared in the conservative right-wing influential American magazine “The New Republic”. Mazari was dumped by The Jang Group after her strong views on War on Terror, US foreign policies, its national securities interests aborad and Pakistan government’s alliance with it. Arguably a lone ranger among the pack, Mazari now heads The Nation as its Editor and continues to vent her views in articles and popular Pakistani Talk Shows. She has regularly been called “belonging to the Establishment” for whatever it is meant to be at different stages of Pakistan’s engagement with the West..

By Nicholas Schmidle

In late August, a couple of weeks after a U.S. drone strike incinerated Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the country’s most popular televised chat show, “Capital Talk,” hosted a panel to discuss national security. Among the guests was a squat, middle-aged woman with short black hair, streaked with silver dye, named Shireen Mazari. A defense analyst and public intellectual, Mazari is known for her hawkish nationalism–and deep suspicions of India and the United States. Her presence in the studio suggested that, despite the enormous threat her country faced from homegrown terrorists, the conversation that night wouldn’t center around Mehsud or the Pakistani Taliban.

Instead, over the course of the next half hour, the panel discussed reports that Blackwater, the North Carolina–based defense contractor that recently changed its name to Xe Services, was operating in Pakistan. Hamid Mir, the host of “Capital Talk,” showed video footage of Islamabad’s most expensive neighborhoods, featuring multi-story villas with high walls and satellite dishes. The homes looked like any other on the street. But red arrows, superimposed on the screen, pointed to allegedly incriminating electrical generators and surveillance cameras perched atop the walls. “American undercover people are coming,” Mazari said. “They are renting homes, and Blackwater is providingsecurity, running death squads and assassination squads … It is an occupation, by default.”

Mazari’s hunt for American spies and undercover defense contractors was only getting started. In September, she was named editor of The Nation, an English-language daily often described as “Fox News in Pakistan.” (Earlier this year, one columnist dubbed Mazari the “Ann Coulter of Pakistan.”) Throughout the fall, The Nation has published multiple front-page stories on the location of new “Blackwater dens” around Islamabad. It featured a news story last month titled “mysterious us nationals,” which described “two suspicious foreigners wandering in the guise of journalists … [who] seemingly belonged to the US spy agency CIA.” The proof? That they “were driven towards the US Consulate.” (The “mysterious US nationals” turned out to be an English freelance photographer and an Australian photographer who works for Getty.)

The low point, however, came a couple of weeks earlier, when The Nation fronted a story titled “journalists as spies in fata?”–a reference to Pakistan’s federally administered tribal areas–that cited anonymous law enforcement sources accusing Matthew Rosenberg, an American correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, of working as a “chief operative” for the CIA, Blackwater, and the Mossad. “We put in a question mark,” said Mazari, referring to the punctuation at the end of the headline, when I asked her whether she realized she was endangering Rosenberg’s life. (Daniel Pearl, also a Journal reporter, was kidnapped in Karachi in early 2002, accused of being a CIA agent, and beheaded.)

In the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the United States and Pakistan are ostensibly on the same side. But, as the Obama administration prepares to pour tens of thousands of new troops into Afghanistan, it faces a daunting array of challenges from its allies in Islamabad. Perhaps none is as disturbing as the anti-Americanism that is being fueled by Pakistan’s mainstream media. In a twisted development, most Pakistanis now view the United States as their greatest threat and enemy, usurping a place that India seemed primed to occupy eternally. And Mazari, who holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, may represent the vanguard of a well-educated, English-speaking, secular elite increasingly charged with hypernationalism and antipathy toward the United States. Mixing fact with demagoguery, and sometimes outright fiction, she represents yet another obstacle to Washington’s war on the Taliban.

For most of the past decade, Shireen Mazari wrote a regular column in The News, a popular English-language newspaper owned by the largest private media conglomerate in Pakistan. The country does not exactly have a free press–this fall, Reporters Without Borders ranked Pakistan in the bottom 10 percent of its Press Freedom Index, squeezed between Uzbekistan and Equatorial Guinea–but there is no shortage of dissenting opinions aired on any of the country’s myriad private TV channels. Over the past couple of years, much of the commentariat’s energy has gone into denouncing President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. foreign policy. It’s an effort that Mazari, whose articles often criticize the country’s civilian leadership and breathlessly recount CIA plots to dismember Pakistan and seize its nuclear weapons, has played a large part in leading.

I first met Mazari in 2006, when I was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (issi), a foreign ministry–funded think tank. She was the head of the institute, and I was in the country as a freelance journalist, but, at dinner parties, Mazari often introduced me as her “resident CIA agent”–a joke that’s never really funny and grew awfully uncomfortable over time. Eventually, in January 2008, I was expelled from Pakistan following months of reporting in Taliban-affected parts of the country. Last month, in a TV interview, Mazari said, “There is a history of American journalists misbehaving in Pakistan,” after which she mentioned my travels to supposedly off-limits regions and added, “Eventually, he had to be deported.”

Far from being on the fringes of Pakistani society, Mazari is something of an establishment figure. She was appointed director general of the institute by Pervez Musharraf’s government not long after the general seized power in an October 1999 coup. In subsequent years, Mazari says she enjoyed considerable influence within Musharraf’s circles, and those ties, combined with her writing, have led to charges that she is merely a pawn for Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies, which remain critical of U.S. power and are critical of Zardari’s floundering attempts at governance. “It’s quite obvious that her views are in consonance with people in the agencies,” explained Arif Nizami, the former editor of The Nation, who led the paper from 1986 until this September, when Mazari took over. “She’s let loose by certain people in the agencies who would like to see the pot burning,” said an acquaintance of Mazari’s in Islamabad. “She’s just a mouthpiece.”

That doesn’t mean that Mazari’s charges are all without merit. There is, of course, a U.S. military and intelligence presence in Pakistan, and, two weeks ago, the New York-based liberal magazine The Nation–no relation to its Pakistani namesake–published a lengthy article alleging the activities of Xe/Blackwater in Pakistan on behalf of the U.S. military. Xe and the U.S. government deny the charges, but, when I spoke with Mazari soon after, she said, “I certainly feel vindicated.” She later added, “Our interests and the Americans’ interests don’t coincide.”

During Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Pakistan, the secretary of state spent much time arguing that U.S. and Pakistani interests did, in fact, coincide. To a cynical questioner who believed that Pakistan was fighting America’s war, Clinton replied, “We have a common enemy.” Indeed, in the past six months alone, the Pakistani Taliban has exploded bombs in Islamabad; attacked police and military sites in Punjab; overrun the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi; and bombed sites throughout Peshawar. More than 400 people have been killed in terrorist attacks since October. Behind closed doors, senior Pakistani leaders seem to realize the threat, which is why Islamabad accepts U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, silently condoning the drone strikes, for example, while condemning them for public effect. Mazari’s objections–like those of many other Pakistanis–are certainly understandable, but the reckless, oftentimes unsubstantiated way in which Mazari presents them only deepens the so-called “trust deficit” between the two countries.

In August, for example, Mazari wrote that an American citizen named Craig Davis had been arrested in Peshawar and deported because of his alleged ties to Creative Associates, a government contractor that she dubbed the “central organization” for U.S.-funded “suspicious, covert operations” in Pakistan. “Clearly there is a threatening US agenda seeking out our nuclear sites and assassinating people, thereby adding to our chaos and violence,” she continued. Weeks later, she wrote that Davis was back in the country. The U.S. Embassy objected to the story, and The News’s editorial-page editor went back and fact-checked the column. Some of Mazari’s assertions–Davis had not, in fact, been deported–didn’t check out. So, before her next column ran, the editor opted to hold the piece an extra day and show it to a lawyer. In the interim, Mazari announced that she was taking the job as editor of The Nation, though not before accusing the U.S. ambassador, Anne Patterson, of interfering with Pakistan’s free press. (It wasn’t the first time Mazari had accused the Americans of disrupting her career. When the Pakistan People’s Party won elections in 2008, they promptly removed her from her position at the issi, a development for which she also blamed Patterson.)

Mazari and The Nation, though smaller than The News, were a perfect fit; The Nation’s publisher has advocated nuking India and is also noted for his conspiracy-mongering. Since taking over, Mazari claims that the paper has been “seeing a big revival,” with circulation having “jumped up tremendously.” According to both Pakistanis and Pakistan-watchers, The Nation has become a right-wing outlet like Fox News. But Hamid Mir, the host of “Capital Talk,” cautioned against making the comparison–for fear of it becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. “The Nation is not very big and not very influential,” he said. “If The Nation becomes Fox News, then Pakistan will burn.”

Already, the Taliban have seized on the propaganda opportunity that Mazari has opened. When a bomb ripped through a Peshawar market in late October, killing more than 100 people, the Taliban, increasingly concerned about alienating the Pakistani public, refused to take credit for the blast. Instead, Mehsud’s successor, the Fu Manchu–styled Hakimullah Mehsud, blamed Blackwater. If that line becomes accepted, then not only will Pakistan continue to burn, but the U.S.-Pakistan relationship may burn along with it. (Courtesy: The New Republic)

(Nicholas Schmidle, a fellow at the New America Foundation, is the author of To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan. The opinion expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of PKonweb)

Recalibrating Pakistan’s policies with respect to America’s new terrorism and Afghanistan policy. Guests: Imran Khan (Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf), Bashir Ahmed Bilour (ANP)..

Case of Missing Persons in Pakistan related to War on Terror, Balochistan, political victimization, etc. Guests: Asma Jehangir (HRCP), Amina Masood Janjua, Dr.Fozia Siddiqui, Athar Minallah

Exclusive interview of Rehman Malik, Minister of Interior, on Pakistan’s policy and involvement in War on Terror in which more than 4000 people have been killed in 2009, Karachi Ashura attack, etc.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and his ruling party have thrown down the gauntlet in the face of calls for him to resign, condemning what they called a witch-hunt and vowing to foil conspiracies again them.

Opposition politicians and hostile sections of the media have called for Zardari to resign since the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down an amnesty that protected him and others from corruption charges.

The tension comes as the United States has been stepping up pressure on Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban factions in enclaves on the Afghan border, while homegrown militants have been unleashing carnage with a series of bomb attacks.

Here are some scenarios for how the trouble might play out:

MILITARY INTERVENTION

The chance of military intervention at this stage is seen as extremely remote. There is no speculation in Pakistan about a military coup despite rumours in foreign exchange markets in Asia early on Friday, apparently sparked when the defence minister was not allowed to leave the country on the orders of the state anti-graft agency. The minister was on a list of people protected by the 2007 amnesty which the Supreme Court struck down.

The army has had its differences with Zardari, in particular over a U.S. aid bill critics said violated Pakistani sovereignty. But the differences are not seen as serious enough to justify a coup by an army wary of getting involved in politics so soon after the restoration of civilian rule. Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has vowed to stay out of politics and he played an important role in March in the restoration of a Supreme Court chief whom former president Pervez Musharraf sacked in 2007.

That same chief justice will now oversee proceedings against politicians and bureaucrats who could face prosecution. The judiciary has wide public support while investors have been encouraged by the Supreme Court’s rejection of the amnesty, which is seen as improving transparency.

ZARDARI RESIGNS

Zardari is not expected to step down any time soon. He has always struggled to match the popularity of his charismatic late wife, Benazir Bhutto, and has been dogged by accusations of corruption stemming from her terms in power in the 1990s. He says the charges were politically motivated and he has never been convicted. He is also safe from prosecution because of presidential immunity.

Some opposition politicians, mostly from the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and sections of the media have been calling on him to resign but he has dismissed the calls. He met top leaders of his party on Saturday and they vowed to fight enemies and foil conspiracies with “democracy and constitutionalism” as their weapons.

Even if Zardari were eventually to resign, his ruling Pakistan People’s Party would remain in control of the government and would likely determine who would become the new president, who is elected by parliament and provincial assemblies.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Pakistan’s latest political troubles will play out in the courts, not on the streets. Four ministers, including the defence and interior ministers, were on a list of people covered by the now defunct amnesty and could face legal proceedings. They could eventually resign but their departure would not have a big impact on the war on militancy, which is led by the army.

The danger for Zardari is that the legitimacy of his 2008 election as president could be challenged now that old cases against him have been revived. Much will depend on how aggressive the courts are in going after him. Opposition leader Sharif could call protests against Zardari although he has said he does not want to “derail” the democratic system. He has not called for an early general election but his party is expected to do well in the next polls, due by 2013.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WAR ON THE TALIBAN

Political turmoil will divert government attention from the fight against militants, to the dismay of the United States. Pakistan’s effort to tackle the Afghan Taliban is critical to U.S. aims in Afghanistan. Ties have been strained by Pakistan’s reluctance to heed U.S. pressure to crack down harder, with Pakistan officials saying they cannot move too fast without provoking a backlash against Zardari. The militants can be expected to capitalise on the uncertainty and step up attacks. (REUTERS)