July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

NEW YORK, July 10: There has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have travelled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there, the New York Times reported on Thursday quoting American intelligence officials.

The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, the officials told the newspaper.

They have also been quoted as saying that the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops.

The newspaper said that according to the American officials, many of the fighters making their way to the tribal areas were Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Gulf states. American intelligence officials claimed that some jihadist websites had been encouraging foreign militants to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is considered a “winning fight” compared to the insurgency in Iraq that has suffered sharp setbacks recently.

According to the Times, several American officials expressed exasperation that small elements of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force, the Pakistani Army and Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency — the Inter-Services Intelligence — were turning a blind eye to militants launching cross-border attacks, if not supporting them outright.

“Right now, the Pakistanis are in a muddle over how to use the tribal leaders, Frontier Corps paramilitary forces and the Pakistani Army to deal with the situation,” said a senior allied military officer who has served in the region. “To complicate matters, US-Pakistani relations are currently toxic.”

The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has dropped to fewer than 40 a month from as many as 110 a month a year ago, a military spokesman in Baghdad said on Wednesday. “The sanctuary situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province is more, rather than less, troublesome than before,” Gen David D. McKiernan, the new Nato commander in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview.

“The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border, as well as a greater freedom to re-supply, to allow leadership to sustain stronger sanctuaries, and to provide fighters across that border.”