The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

special to the tribune
Pak’s nuclear arsenal safe, says US
Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington

The Obama Administration has publicly expressed confidence about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. But in private, Western officials say this is a top concern as the Taliban carried out major attacks in Karachi this week. Less than 48 hours after attacking Karachi’s international airport on Sunday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on an airport training facility in the city on Tuesday. However, State Department spokesman Marie Harf said the Pakistani government was committed to safeguarding its nuclear arsenal.

“We believe the Pakistani government understands the importance of protecting all of its arsenal, including things related to its nuclear programme. We know that they care about this a great deal and have no reason at this point to think it’s anything but safe,” Harf said.

Pakistan has, with the US help, put in place a robust set of measures to secure its nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s military is believed to have a 10,000-person force specifically designated to protecting nuclear facilities.

Pakistani fears that its nuclear arsenal could be in jeopardy in the event of a conflict with India prompted it to locate most of these facilities in the north and west of the country and around the capital Islamabad.

Past terror attacks on nuclear facilities

November 1, 2007: Terrorist attacked a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha

December 10, 2007: A suicide bomber targetted Pakistan’s nuclear airbase at Kamra

August 20, 2008: Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment

Qaida-linked men capture Iraq’s second largest city
Military base overrun in Mosul, hundred of prisoners freed

Mosul, June 10
Sunni Islamist insurgents seized control of Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul early on Tuesday in a spectacular show of strength against the Shi’ite-led government, which called on Parliament to declare a state of emergency.

The capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an offshoot of Al-Qaida, and its allies followed four days of fighting in the northern city and attacks in other towns. Residents said ISIL black flags and banners were flying on captured government buildings.

The fall of Mosul deals a serious blow to Baghdad’s efforts to fight Sunni militants who have regained ground and momentum in Iraq over the past year, pushing into Mosul last week and overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners.

The army has been fighting ISIL in western Iraq since the start of the year when they overran two cities in the Sunni heartland of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria. Across the frontier in Syria, ISIL fighters have seized territory close to the Iraqi border during three years of civil war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels.

ISIL militants from Iraq have joined the battle in Syria along with other foreign fighters with the aim of establishing a Sunni Islamist state on either side of the border. In a speech on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged the international community to support his country in its fight against “terrorism” and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency.

State television said the speaker of Parliament had scheduled an emergency session for Thursday to vote on the motion, which requires a two thirds majority.

Police, military and security officials told Reuters that the insurgents, armed with anti-aircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, had taken over almost all police and

Army checkpoints in and around the Mosul early on Tuesday. “We have lost Mosul this morning. Army and police forces left their positions and ISIL terrorists are in full control,” said a Colonel at the local military command. “It’s a total collapse of the security forces.”

Two officers said security forces had received orders to leave Mosul after militants captured the Ghizlani army base and set more than 200 inmates free from a high-security prison. — Reuters

Bombs at funeral procession kill 20

Baquba: Two bombs exploded near a funeral procession in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Tuesday, killing 20 persons. The blasts in the capital of Diyala province, 60 km north of Baghdad, also wounded 28 persons, the sources said. Mourners were carrying the body of a teacher who was shot dead the previous night to a cemetery when the blasts occurred. AFP

Poland urges Russia to help defuse Ukrainian crisis at trilateral talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C), his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) and their Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski at a news conference in St. Petersburg on Tuesday. Reuters

St Petersburg, June 10
Poland called on Russia on Tuesday to help defuse the crisis in Ukraine by preventing militants and weapons from crossing into the eastern part of the country, where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski spoke at a joint news conference with his Russian and German counterparts after trilateral talks that failed to produce any breakthrough in a crisis that has badly strained Moscow’s ties with the West.

“If Russia wants to prove that it wants de-escalation in Ukraine, the best way to do it would be to stop the flow of separatists and arms through the Russian-Ukrainian border,” Sikorski said. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier took a more nuanced stance, saying both Russia and Ukraine needed to better control their common border and suggesting the need for “common border management in some form”.

Russia’s Sergei Lavrov repeated Moscow’s demand that the Kiev government stop armed operations against the separatists, urging an immediate ceasefire and the start of talks on Ukraine’s future. “Ending the military operation against the protesters is of course key, in our view ... Nobody is interested in a continuation of war there,” said Lavrov. Tension between Lavrov and Sikorski was palpable during the news conference.

Sikorski said Ukraine, a sprawling former Soviet republic of 45 million people pitched between Russia and central Europe, had the right to deploy the army against armed groups on its soil. Lavrov said that was a show of double standards, noting that the West had opposed the use of force by Ukrainian authorities against protesters who drove Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich from power in February.

After Yanukovich’s ouster, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March and massed tens of thousands of troops near its long border with Ukraine, igniting fears in Kiev and the West that Moscow would seek to take over more Ukrainian territory. — Reuters

Moldova and Georgia head for EU pact

Chisinau/Tbilisi: Undeterred by the conflict triggered by Ukraine's swing towards Europe, the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia will sign a trade and political pact with the European Union this month with Russia warning both countries against the move. The two small countries see the signing of an association agreement as the crucial step towards mainstream Europe, leading to eventual membership of the EU trading bloc.

Angelina launches fight against wartime rape

London, June 10
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie and British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Tuesday launched a four-day summit on ending rape in war, calling for an end to the “culture of impunity” and more prosecutions. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who will attend the conference in London on Friday, said the delegates from 117 countries wanted to “relegate sexual violence to the annals of history”.

The summit is the fruit of a two-year campaign by UN special envoy Jolie and Hague, who have visited the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bosnia to meet victims of rape during conflict.

As she opened the conference, Jolie said she and Hague had discussed a woman they met in Bosnia, who was still too ashamed to tell her son that she had been raped.

“This day is for her,” said Jolie. “We believe it truly is a summit like no other.” Standing next to her, Hague told reporters: “This will be the greatest concentration of effort, of discussion and decision ever seen in combating sexual violence in conflict.” The conference, held at a vast conference centre, includes 150 events open to the public in what the organisers hope will be a giant exercise in raising awareness.

In a statement, Kerry called for countries to end their protection of individuals who commit “these vile acts”. “We must declare in unison: ‘They can’t run and they won’t hide here’,” he said.

Almost 150 governments have endorsed a declaration of commitment to end sexual violence in conflict.

Organisers also want to increase and improve the documentation of rape in warzones to allow more prosecutions to be brought. — AFP

Rivlin is Israel’s new President

Jerusalem, June 10
Reuven Rivlin, a far-right member of Israel’s ruling Likud party, was today elected as the nation’s 10th President to replace Shimon Peres, ending the “dirtiest” campaign in the history of the Jewish nations’ most respected public office. Rivlin, 74, beat lawmaker Meir Sheetrit of Hatnua party in a second-round runoff. Rivlin secured 63 to Sheetrit’s 53 in the 120-member Knesset (the parliament).

The run up to the elections saw major aspirants face charges ranging from sexual misconduct to financial misappropriation leading to many analysts dubbing the elections “dirtiest” in Israel’s history. Peres’ successor was chosen after two months of fierce political campaigning.

Peres, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in the first Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, assumed office in 2007, after predecessor Moshe Katsav resigned to fight rape charges for which he was eventually convicted and jailed. Rivlin will be sworn-in on July 24.

Five candidates were running for the president. The first round of voting eliminated former Supreme Court Judge Dalia Dorner, former Communications Minister and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dan Shechtman. — PTI

5 US troops killed in Afghanistan

Kabul, June 10
Five US servicemen were killed in southern Afghanistan in a friendly-fire air strike during a security operation, Afghan police and the Pentagon said on Tuesday, days before a run-off round in the country’s presidential election. The men died on Monday in Zabul province’s Arghandab district when their unit, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), clashed with insurgents.

Local police chief Ghulam Sakhi Roghlewanai said: “The five killed were American soldiers who just returned from an operation when they were hit. “ISAF troops were returning to their bases after an operation when they were ambushed by the insurgents. The air strike mistakenly hit their own forces and killed the soldiers.”

A Pentagon statement said investigators were “looking into the likelihood that friendly fire was the cause. — Reuters