Officials: NATO clashes with Pakistani troops
Tensions mounted Tuesday when NATO helicopters flying in eastern Afghanistan fired across the border into Pakistan after being fired on twice, according to a NATO official.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force later received reports that two Pakistani soldiers were wounded.
Two coalition helicopters supporting operations at U.S. Forward Operating Base Tillman in Afghanistan were fired upon from the Pakistani side of the border, said the NATO official, who did not want to be identified because the information has not yet been released publicly. After being fired upon a second time, the helicopters returned fire, the official said.
Read the full storyPakistan announces arrest of senior al Qaeda militant
A senior al Qaeda operative has been arrested by security agencies in Karachi, the Pakistani military said in a statement Tuesday.
The military identified the man as Muhammad Ali Qasim, also known as Abu Sohaib al Makki, a Yemeni national who has been working directly under al Qaeda leaders along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
The arrest is a major development in unraveling the al Qaeda network operating in the region, and comes more than two weeks after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a military operation in Pakistan.
Pakistani police foil suicide attack
Pakistani police foiled a suicide attack Tuesday in the southwestern city of Quetta when they killed five militants laden with explosives.
Police stopped the three women and two men after they pulled up to a checkpoint, said Daud Junejo, police chief in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province. The five threatened police, telling them they were suicide bombers.
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U.S. contradicts Taliban leader on bin Laden visits
Visits by outsiders to the Osama bin Laden compound were "few and far between," a U.S. official said.
The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, disputed comments published in the Daily Beast website from a Taliban leader in Afghanistan who suggested Osama bin Laden was not isolated and did receive visitors at the Pakistan compound. The Daily Beast report said the senior Taliban leader claimed to have visited bin Laden in the Abbottabad compound two years ago.
While more could be learned about bin Laden's activities, including visitors, as U.S. agents go through the materials seized from the compound, but thus far U.S. intelligence suggests visits were "infrequent," according to the official.
Read the full storyU.S. drone strikes pick up after Osama bin Laden's death
he United States has sent drones to strike at suspected militants in Pakistan five times in the last 11 days, nearly triple the pace prior to the successful May 1 raid to kill Osama bin Laden.
The latest strike occurred Monday, when a suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed 10 suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN.
Two intelligence officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media said the suspected drone fired two missiles on a militant's hideout in the area of Mir Ali of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The Monday strike was the 25th suspected U.S. drone strike this year, according to a CNN count.
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