July 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1429

MIRANSHAH, July 29: A senior US military commander visited Miramshah, the regional headquarters of North Waziristan, on Monday; a day before security forces raided a seminary of a senior Taliban commander.

Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that Lt-Gen Martin E. Dempsey, acting commander of Centcom, had flown into Miramshah for an “on the ground security briefing”.

The visit lasted about an hour and a half.

Gen Dempsey and his team were accompanied by a liaison officer from the Pakistan Army.

Pakistan Army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas could not be contacted for comments on the visit.

This apparently was the first such visit by a senior US military commander to the tribal region that the Americans say is being used by Al Qaeda to organise attacks in Afghanistan and the west.

In Islamabad, the acting commander of the US Central Command held talks with top Pakistani military commanders on the situation in Fata.

The seminary which was raided is owned by Taliban commander Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqani.

It is located in Dandi Derpakhel area of Miramshah.

Official sources confirmed the raid and said that troops searched Mamba-i-Uloom near Miramshah bazaar and locked the rooms of the abandoned building.

Mr Haqani had set up the seminary in the early 1980s during the days of Afghan resistance against the former Soviet Union.