Pakistan resists U.S. push to expand terror fight

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's foreign minister said Sunday that his country will deal with a key Taliban sanctuary along the Afghan border on its own timeline despite increasing U.S. pressure to move swiftly to help turn around the war in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke after returning from Washington for the latest round of high-level strategic talks with the Obama administration. His comments indicated a new $2 billion military aid package offered by the U.S. did little change Pakistan's strategic calculus.

"We have our own priorities. We have our own sense of timing," said Qureshi when asked by reporters about U.S. pressure to launch an offensive against Taliban militants in the North Waziristan tribal area who regularly attack foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The U.S. believes an operation in North Waziristan is key to success in the Afghan war because the area serves as the main base for the Haqqani network — a militant group that military officials have said poses the greatest threat to troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has resisted taking action. Analysts say the country is reluctant to target militants it has historical ties with and who could be useful allies in Afghanistan once foreign troops withdraw.

The Haqqani network is led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj. The elder Haqqani was closely allied with Pakistan during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Pakistan has denied that it has links with militants and has said that it cannot launch an offensive in North Waziristan until it wraps up operations in other areas of the tribal belt.

"When you do an operation, you have to consolidate your position," Qureshi told reporters during a news conference in the city of Lahore. "If you do an operation without consolidating, what will happen is that you leave the place and they (the militants) will fill the gap again."

The U.S. tried to encourage Pakistan to intensify its fight against extremists during the recent talks, offering a five-year, $2 billion aid package to purchase American arms, ammunition and accessories from 2012 to 2016.

The new aid, which must be approved by Congress, replaces a similar but less valuable package that began in 2005 and expired on Oct. 1. It will complement $7.5 billion in civilian assistance the administration has already committed to Pakistan over five years, some of which has been diverted to help the country deal with devastating floods.

Saudi Intel Warns of New Europe Terror Threat

PARIS -- Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from Al Qaeda against Europe, particularly in France, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Sunday.

He said the warning of a potential attack by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was received "in the last few hours, few days."

European officials were informed that "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was doubtless active or envisioned being active" on the "European continent, notably France," Hortefeux said during a joint TV and radio interview.

"The threat is real," he said on RTL-LCI-Le Figaro's weekly talk show.

The warning from Saudi Arabia is the latest in a series of alerts that have put French security forces and others in high-vigilance mode.

On Sept. 9, Interpol, the international police organization, signaled an "Islamist threat on a world scale, and notably on the European continent," Hortefeux said without elaborating. That was followed by a Sept. 16, report of a woman suicide bomber who could take action in France — later judged not fully credible.

Intelligence sources in North Africa also contacted France about a potential threat as did the United States, he said. He said he had spoken at length with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

It was the first time a French official has offered details about potential threats since mid-September, when officials first publicly invoked the possibility that France could be a target of radical Islamist groups.

"We must not overestimate the threat or underestimate it," the minister said. "We are directly concerned."

No one could be reached at the Saudi Interior Ministry late Sunday.

The U.S. State Department advised American citizens living or traveling in Europe earlier this month to take more precautions following reports that terrorists may be plotting attacks on a European city, possibly a shooting spree or other type of attack similar to the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks in India.

France began boosting security last month at busy tourist sites like Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, which was twice evacuated after false claims of an attack. French authorities recorded nine bomb alerts in the capital in September, including the two at the Eiffel Tower — a threefold increase from a year earlier. No explosives were found.

Speculation on the source of a potential terror threat has centered on Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, another Al Qaeda offshoot active in Algeria and Africa's Sahel region, which took five French citizens hostage Sept. 16 from a heavily guarded mining town in Niger. Two workers from Togo and Madagascar also were captured.

French fears that it could be a target of the Maghreb affiliate of Al Qaeda are based on Paris' historic ties to the region, where it is a former colonial ruler, and recent enmity caused by such things as the French law banning burqa-style veils in streets. Al Qaeda had spoken against the measure before it became law. France also has soldiers in Afghanistan.

A threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula would be unusual for France and Europe. The group is made up of radical Islamists from Yemen and Saudi branches who merged a year and a half ago.

However, the group has already showed its will to reach beyond the Middle East, claiming responsibility for the failed attempt to down a Detroit-bound jetliner with a suicide bomber in December.

Whether various Al Qaeda affiliates coordinate action or communicate with each other is unknown, but experts tend to doubt that is the case.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni official said Sunday that warplanes bombed Al Qaeda hide-outs in the country's south, killing five militants.

Security measures were tightened around foreign interests and Western embassies in San'a for possible terrorists acts, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Police closed the main road leading to the U.S. embassy and security measures were tightened around the British embassy and the French embassy.

On Friday, the Department of State warned U.S. citizens of the high security threat level in Yemen due to terrorist activities and France urged families of French workers there to leave the country on security concerns. Britain has urged its citizens to remain vigilant in Yemen.

On Oct. 6, attackers fired a rocket at a convoy carrying Britain's No. 2 diplomat in Yemen and a separate attack on the same day by a security guard killed a French oil worker. Britain's deputy chief of mission Fionna Gibb was unharmed in the rocket attack but another embassy official suffered minor injuries.

The British Foreign Office had no comment.