Al-Qaeda crippled by Pak operations: US report

WASHINGTON: The annual-country terrorism report released by the US has declared that Pakistan’s offensive in North Waziristan Agency has further degraded al-Qaeda’s freedom to operate in the region.

The report outlined terrorist activities around the globe, and specified counter-terrorism efforts as well. It highlighted that al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan had been seriously destroyed even though the group’s global leadership continued to operate from remote locations in the region that the group had historically exploited for safe havens.

The report said that “International, Afghan, and Pakistani forces continued to contest AQ’s presence in the region, and Pakistan’s offensive in North Waziristan Agency further degraded the group’s freedom to operate. Pressure on AQ’s traditional safe havens has constrained the leadership’s ability to communicate effectively with affiliate groups outside of South Asia.”

The report also indicated that terrorist-related violence in Pakistan declined last year but the country continued to suffer significant terrorist attacks, particularly against vulnerable targets such as schools. "The Pakistani military and security forces undertook operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan such as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)." However it accused Pakistan for not taking substantial action against the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network. "Pakistan did not take substantial action against the Afghan Taliban or HQN, or substantially limit their ability to threaten US interests in Afghanistan, although Pakistan supported efforts to bring both groups into an Afghan-led peace process."

The State Department further pointed out other un-designated extremists groups saying, "Pakistan has also not taken sufficient action against other externally-focused groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which continued to operate, train, organise, and fundraise in Pakistan."

It said that ISIS/ISIL announced to establish its formal branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K) last January. "The group primarily comprises disenfranchised members of the Afghan Taliban and TTP. At year’s end, the majority of the group’s attacks were against Afghan government, Taliban, and civilian targets, although the group also claimed a small number of attacks in Pakistan’s settled areas."

The report said that India continued to experience terrorist attacks, including operations launched by Maoist insurgents and transnational groups based in Pakistan. While, Indian authorities continued to blame Pakistan for cross-border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. In July, India experienced a terrorist attack in Gurdaspur, Punjab; the first in Punjab state since the 1990s, the report said.

News Desk adds: The report also includes statistics on terrorist activity worldwide, and said 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries occurred in 2015.

On Iran, the report said that country "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world."

The report also said that Iran was continuing to provide arms and cash to terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia terrorist groups, including Kata'ib Hizballah (KH). Both groups are designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations in the report.

Iran is one of three listed state sponsors of terrorism, the others being Syria and Sudan. Cuba was removed from the list last year.

Siberell added that the department was "concerned about a wide range of Iranian activities to destabilize the region."

Iran's designation and continued sponsoring of terrorism is bound to fuel criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. Critics of the deal have charged that the removal of economic sanctions would allow Iran to increase its support of terror groups. 

—Originally published in The News