West fears repeat of Rome-Vienna type attacks

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Western intelligence agencies have found the Al Qaeda plot to attack different airports in Europe has its origins in Pakistan's Waziristan region — a militant-riddled remote tribal border region often hit by US drones.
On Sunday, the US State Department had issued a travel alert warning about potential terror attacks in Europe. The alert had said that public transport systems and tourist infrastructure could be targets of attacks. Reports in the western media said that one scenario the authorities fear is a repeat of the 1985 attack on the Rome and Vienna airports, when Palestinian extremists threw grenades and fired on travellers waiting at ticket counters, injuring 140 and killing 19.

Security officials said that they have detected heightened activity on cyberspace — a dramatic increase in online chatter among jihadi websites. They said the discussions in virtual meeting rooms are all about terror plans. The hostile region known for its battle-hardened fighters, bomb-making factories and suicide attackers has been dubbed by Washington the most dangerous place on earth and a global headquarters of Al Qaeda. The plot is thought to have been inspired by Al Qaeda's fugitive leadership in the deeply conservative and fiercely independent region, although Pakistan has rejected the notion of a plot on its soil.

A potent vortex of Afghan, Pakistani, Uzbek and Arab militants, Waziristan is described by Pakistani intelligence officials as a black hole. It was thrown back into the limelight last May when New York bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad told US interrogators he received bomb making training there. It is the headquarters of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in two videos made earlier this year threatening to attack US cities. The group also made a widely disputed claim for the New York bomb plot.

Pakistan launched a sweeping offensive into South Waziristan last October in a bid to wipe out the nerve centre of the country's main Taliban faction, blamed for a campaign of suicide attacks and bombings killing thousands. Much of the TTP leadership is believed to have fled, but the military has so far stopped short of ordering a similar offensive into North Waziristan, which has been seen as the ultimate fortress of foreign and Pakistani militants. The region's pull for diaspora Pakistani youth living in the West who have fallen into the clutches of radical Islam is well documented.

Five Americans were sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Pakistani anti-terror court in June for plotting militant attacks. Pakistani investigators said they had planned to travel to South Waziristan but were instead arrested last December.

The mastermind of the July 7, 2005 bombings in London, Muktar Said Ibrahim, also travelled to a militant training camp in Pakistan, but it was unclear where.
Before the army offensive, the TTP was believed to have 10,000 to 12,000 followers in South Waziristan including Uzbek and Arab fighters. The number of militants in North Waziristan is not clear, but the region is a headquarters for the Haqqani network, locked in fighting with the Americans in Afghanistan. The network is led by former mujahedin commander Jalaluddin Haqqani's son Sirajuddin Haqqani, who claims to command 2,000 fighters.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussein Haqqani told TV channels that people plotting the attack have already been targeted by security officials. “I think that several people who were involved in the plotting have been targeted, and the others are certainly on the radar of the US, Pakistani and European intelligence services,” Mr Haqqani said. “Pakistan is an American ally. America depends on Pakistan. We can't and don’t do everything that Americans think we should do because sometimes we don't have the capacity, sometimes we don't have the means,” Mr Haqqani said.

“In this particular instance (the unearthing of a plot to carry out Mumbai-style attack), the US is very happy, I can say that American officials have told us that the quality of cooperation they have received from ISI is really 100%,” he said. The top envoy said Pakistan will take action against extremists at its own pace and will, whose time line can’t be dictated by the West. “We will target them with American help, but it will be technical help. It will not be personnel on ground,” Haqqani said.