Pakistan News And Discussion-11

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Militants vow 'gift of death' for Pakistani troops</b>
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 23 (AFP) Militants Monday warned Pakistani soldiers to quit fighting or face more suicide attacks, as peace talks faltered in the area bordering Afghanistan. Militants threatened that explosives would bring soldiers the “gift of death” in a pamphlet entitled “Till Islam Lives in Islamabad”, distributed in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal district. The pamphlet, issued by a group calling itself the Mujahedin-e-Islam, accused Pakistani troops of doing the bidding of the United States and leading impure lives. (Posted @ 14:00 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Daily Times - Site Edition Monday, July 23, 2007
<b>US aid plan for FC facing resistance</b>

LAHORE: The Bush administration is struggling to get congressional approval for millions of dollars in aid to the Frontier Corps in the tribal areas of Pakistan, reports the Boston Globe. The $300 million plan to transform the Frontier Corps into a modern fighting force is part of a new, $2 billion US-Pakistani counterinsurgency effort designed to wrest the region from extremist militants. But this new funding request has run into resistance, in part because of congressional restrictions on aid to non-traditional military groups, and also because questions have been raised about whether the tribesmen who make up the corps are friends or foes of the United States, congressional sources and US officials told the Globe. State Department officials say the 80,000-member FC needs a massive training, equipment, vehicles, and night-vision goggles to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban. daily times monitoring
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