Karzai arrives in Washington as Taleban threaten fresh assault

Times Online - President Karzai arrives in Washington today for crucial talks to mend relations with the US as the Taleban threaten a new assault in Afghanistan.  The four-day visit by Mr Karzai comes at a critical moment in his strained relationship with the Obama Administration and in the eight-year Afghan war. With a US-led military operation aimed at routing the Taleban in their heartland of Kandahar to be launched within weeks, the insurgent group warned last night that a counter-offensive — called “Operation Victory”, in opposition to Nato’s “Operation Hope” — would begin today.

Mr Karzai, who at the request of the White House is bringing key ministers with him, lands in the US at a time when Mr Obama’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy is in a dangerous state of flux.

The volatile situation in northern Pakistan is threatening to undermine the war effort in Afghanistan, particularly because of Taleban activity in Pakistan’s border region of Waziristan.

Eric Holder, the US Attorney-General, announced that US authorities believed that the Pakistani Taleban group was responsible for last week’s unsuccessful car bomb plot in Times Square, New York, in a development that reflects the ambition and reach of the group.

“We’ve now developed evidence that shows the Pakistani Taleban was behind the attack,” Mr Holder said. He added that the group probably financed the plot and had been “intimately involved” with Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born US citizen who allegedly tried to detonate the device.

Mr Shahzad, who was arrested trying to leave America on a commercial aircraft, has told the FBI that he received bombmaking training in North Waziristan.

Mr Holder divulged the new intelligence as a US unmanned drone fired two missiles into a Taleban camp in North Waziristan, killing nine militants, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistani army helicopter gunships also killed 18 militants in the northwestern region of Orakzai, according to local officials.

It emerged that the Obama Administration had delivered severe warnings to Pakistan that it must move against Taleban and al-Qaeda strongholds in Waziristan.

Pakistani officials have been warned that a failure to take on the border militants could lead to US troops being sent into the region, a prospect that has been opposed by Islamabad. Pakistani officials are already sensitive to the drone strikes, which have claimed many civilian lives.

General Stanley McChrystal, the US ground commander in Afghanistan, met General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani military chief, on Friday to insist that he confronts the Taleban and al-Qaeda in Waziristan.

Mr Karzai will be welcomed publicly in Washington today, weeks after the visit looked in jeopardy. After being rebuked by Mr Obama during a brief visit to Kabul last month over his failure to end corruption, Mr Karzai said that he might join the Taleban.

Mr Obama believes that the public feuding has been counter-productive. The Afghan leader is the only partner that the US has in Afghanistan and the American President, in an attempt to inject discipline into the war strategy, has ordered aides to treat Mr Karzai well and to end anonymous briefings against him.

Before Mr Karzai meets Mr Obama on Wednesday he will hold talks with Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, and senior members of both parties on Capitol Hill.

Mr Karzai’s desire to negotiate with the Taleban, a topic fraught with tension, will be central to the talks. The White House has agreed to the co-opting of low-level Taleban but there is a wariness in Washington to Mr Karzai’s suggestion of wooing the Taleban leadership.