Pakistan, Al Qaeda | featured news

American missiles struck twice in the tribal region that is a stronghold of Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Ground troops attack militant positions in South Waziristan, a response to a wave of violence that extremists launched in the past two weeks.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani troops launched a long-awaited ground offensive into the Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold of South Waziristan today, beginning what experts say will be the country's most challenging chapter yet in the ongoing war on terror.

An Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terrorist attack in New York after receiving training in Pakistan was in contact with a senior Al Qaeda operative, intelligence officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Thursday the U.S. intelligence agency believes al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan and hopes joint operations with Pakistani forces will find him.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden purportedly issued another statement Wednesday, saying U.S. policy in Pakistan has generated "new seeds of hatred and revenge against America."

A military offensive to rid Pakistan's northwest of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters has killed more than 1,000 militants since it began in full force earlier this month, the country's interior ministry said Sunday.

In late 2007, there was the first crack of daylight into the government's use of waterboarding during interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees. On Dec. 10, John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer who had participated in the capture of the suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in 2002, appeared on ABC News to say that while he considered waterboarding a form of torture, the technique worked and yielded results very quickly.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.

A Pakistani border region struggling against Taliban and al-Qaida militants will distribute 30,000 rifles to villagers in hopes that local militias can help the provincial government regain control, a top official said Sunday.