Border shelling overshadows U.S.-Pakistan-Afghan talks (Reuters)

KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Fighting across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will overshadow talks when the two countries meet along with the United States on Tuesday to map out plans for reconciliation with the Taliban.

Pakistan on Monday rejected Afghan allegations it had fired 470 rockets into Afghanistan over the past three weeks, saying only that "a few accidental rounds" may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had attacked its security forces.

But the escalation of fighting on the border between Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal areas and Afghanistan has underscored the difficulties the three countries face in working together to reach a political settlement to the 10-year Afghan war.

"I think the main thing on the agenda this time may be the situation on the border," said Waheed Mujhda, political analyst at the Afghan Analytical and Advisory Center in Kabul.

The meeting, between U.S. envoy Marc Grossman and top diplomats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, follows President Barack Obama's announcement last week of a faster-than-expected troop withdrawal, accompanied by talks with the Taliban.

"It's a way to coordinate efforts on reconciliation but also a way for Afghanistan and the U.S. to state clearly to the government of Pakistan ... to end the support by Pakistan of safe havens," Grossman told a news conference.

Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to militants on its side of the border, particularly in eastern Kunar province, leaving it vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of its own tribal areas.

Top military commanders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States met in Kabul on Monday to review the situation on the border, a Pakistan army statement said.

Generals Ashfaq Kayani, Sher Mohammad Karimi and David Petraeus looked at ways of improving the effectiveness of operations, the statement said.

"Steps for better coordination and enhanced cooperation to avoid misunderstandings as regard to the border security were also discussed," it said.

Pakistan, badly bruised after U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on May 2, is keen to show it has a constructive role to play in helping the United States to bring stability to Afghanistan.

It has long wanted the United States to hold talks with the Taliban to seek a political settlement to the Afghan conflict which it says is fuelling its own domestic Islamist insurgency.

The United States has come some way toward sharing that view, opening its own preliminary talks with the Taliban.

It has also softened its stance on talks by saying its demands that insurgents renounce violence, sever ties with al Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution are outcomes rather than preconditions for negotiations -- a suggestion made last year by Pakistan.

"Strategically the two countries are on same page," a senior military official said last month. "There are issues on operational and tactical levels."

Karzai has also been pushing for reconciliation with the Taliban and for the first time in the 10-year war, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States all share -- in theory at least -- a commitment to seek a political settlement.

DISTRUST ON ALL SIDES

But deep distrust remains, both between the United States and Pakistan and between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan has so far been excluded from Washington's early contacts with the Taliban, Grossman told a news conference in Kabul. "Up to now, the government of Pakistan has not been involved in that particular process at all, as yet."

Kabul accuses Pakistan of continuing to support the Afghan Taliban, whom it openly backed when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, to maintain its influence in Afghanistan.

It also says Islamabad is trying to manipulate peace talks to its advantage, to the point of sabotaging them if they do not go in the direction it wants.

"We expect practical steps from Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead to help sustain the peace process," a senior Afghan government official said. "The ball is in Pakistan's court."

With the Taliban talks still at a preliminary stage, and vulnerable to ethnic and regional rivalries which could plunge Afghanistan deeper into civil war as U.S. troops withdraw, the cross-border shelling has added another complication to a fragile situation.

The Afghan government said on Sunday that "it strongly condemned the firing of 470 rockets over the past three weeks from the Pakistan side of the border in the eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangahar provinces."

President Hamid Karzai expressed his deep concern, it said, and asked Pakistan to immediately stop firing into Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Karzai said on Monday Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul had been summoned over the issue, adding: "We are sure it can be resolved."

Pakistan army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said no rounds had been intentionally fired into Afghanistan.

In the last month, there had been five major attacks from the Afghan side of the border in which 55 men in the Pakistani security forces had been killed and 80 wounded. "The fleeing militants were engaged by the security forces and a few accidental rounds going across cannot be ruled out," he said.

Pakistan says militants, including Pakistani Taliban commanders, have taken refuge on the Afghan side after it launched military operations to drive them out of its Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

It was angered by a U.S. decision to thin out its troops in eastern Afghanistan, including the Korengal valley in Kunar province, when Washington decided to concentrate on population centres in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban heartland.

"For quite some time we have been highlighting that there are safe havens across the border," Abbas said. "Something should be done about these."

Before the killing of bin Laden, the United States had been talking about improving coordination of military operations on both sides of the border so that they could work with, rather than against, each other, in fighting insurgents.

That cooperation may have deteriorated in the breakdown of trust which followed the unilateral U.S. raid to get bin Laden, perhaps explaining the escalation in cross-border shelling.

It is impossible to verify independently exactly what is happening on the remote mountainous border.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Shelling erupts in Sudan's Abyei, official says (Reuters)

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) – Shelling between northern and southern Sudanese troops forced aid workers to evacuate the town of Agok at the southern tip of the disputed Abyei region on Friday, a humanitarian official said.

The country's south is just over three weeks away from declaring independence, but Khartoum and Juba have yet to decide who should control the fertile, oil-producing Abyei region, raising fears the two sides could return to open conflict.

Khartoum seized Abyei's main town on May 21, pushing as far south as the Kiir River, known as Bahr al-Arab in the north. The waterway has since become the front line between the two sides.

"This morning, from about 10 a.m., there was shelling on both sides of the river. Later there was shelling just a little bit north of Agok ... All humanitarians are being pulled out of Agok," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

The southern army said it had clashed with northern troops in the area, but it was not immediately clear if that was connected to the reported shelling near Agok.

A spokesman for the northern military was not immediately available to comment.

The southern military said it exchanged fire with northern forces in Abyei Wednesday. The northern army denied the report, suggesting internal southern rebel militias may have been behind the clashes.

Southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said there had been more clashes Friday, but did not give details.

"There was a clash in the same bridge area. The SAF (the northern Sudanese Armed Forces) came back. SPLA (the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army) fought them," he said. "We think the area might be overrun by SAF."

Negotiators from both sides have been meeting in neighboring Ethiopia since Sunday. Despite reaching an agreement "in principle" to demilitarize Abyei, no final deal has emerged yet.

Southerners voted for independence in a January referendum promised in a 2005 peace agreement that ended a long and brutal civil war. About 2 million people died in that conflict.

(Reporting by Jeremy Clarke; writing and additional reporting Alex Dziadosz in Khartoum; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Gadhafi forces kill 22 rebels in Misrata shelling (AP)

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and DIAA HADID, Associated Press Maggie Michael And Diaa Hadid, Associated Press – 1 hr 6 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan government forces pounded the outskirts of the rebel-held city of Misrata on Friday, killing at least 22 people, a hospital physician said.

The doctor at Hikma Hospital, who would only give his first name, Ayman, said Moammar Gadhafi's forces used tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets in the bombardment of Dafniya, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata. He said at least 61 people were wounded in the attacks which began about 10 a.m. local time.

Gadhafi forces had renewed their shelling near Misrata on Wednesday. The city is one of the few footholds rebels have in western Libya and controls the country's largest port.

The doctor said residents had reported no sign of NATO aircraft in the Misrata region. There also were no reports NATO strikes in Tripoli, the capital. NATO had been pounding Tripoli and environs in recent days, stepping up backing for the four-month-old rebel uprising that seeks to oust Gadhafi from power after four decades.

Rebels have taken control of swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since come to a stalemate even with NATO support. Misrata remained one of the most important rebel footholds in the Gadhafi controlled west.

Government forces are surrounding Misrata on all sides but the north, where the city has access to the Mediterranean Sea for supplies and food through Libya's major port. Rebels have beaten back several government attempts to retake the city.

The Gadhafi forces are pushing back on rebel forces trying to break out of Misrata to the west toward Tripoli, where Gadhafi is increasingly cornered under NATO bombardment in the capital.

A rebel fighter in Misrata who identifies himself only as Abdel-Salem said Gadhafi's sons, Khamis and al-Moatassem, and top aid Abdullah al-Senoussi are in command of the operation in Zlitan, about nine miles (15 kilometers) from Dafinya. They are dug in trying to stop the rebel advance out of Misrata.

"The situation is very bad there. Gadhafi sent huge forces to Zlitan to fortify the city because he knows that if Zlitan falls in the hands of the rebels, the way to Tripoli will be wide open," Abdel-Salam said. "Now the ball is in the court of NATO, but we have not seen any NATO planes flying over despite the fierce battle."

According to Abdel-Salam, a bulk of Zlitan residents are Ghadafi loyalists.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin spoke of the degredation of Gadhafi's forces Friday after a classified briefing by senior Pentagon officials in Washington. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Gadhafi's military and political standing had been weakened by NATO air attacks.

Levin said administration officials offered no predictions on how long the war would last or when Gadhafi might go. He said NATO helicopters, likely British and French, have been taking out tanks without collateral damage.

Turkey's prime minister said in a TV interview broadcast Friday that his country has offered Gadhafi guarantees if he were to leave Libya but has recieved no response. He did not detail what sort of guarantees.

"He has no other option but to leave Libya, with the condition that he is given certain guarantees. That's the picture," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in the interview with the NTV channel.

"We have given him these guarantees; we said we will help you leave for wherever you would like."

In Norway, meanwhile, military officials said on Friday the country would scale down its fighter jet contribution the NATO force flying above Libya from six to four planes and withdraw completely from the NATO-led operation by Aug. 1.

The Dutch government, however, has continue its forces' role in the NATO campaign through the end of the three month extension the alliance announced last week. It also plans to contribute a handful of new staff.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged NATO allies, including the Netherlands, to do more in Libya to share the burden with France and Britain, which are carrying out most of the air strikes.

The Dutch government still will not allow its six F-16 fighter jets involved in the mission to carry out airstrikes. Instead they will continue to enforce the no-fly-zone above Libya.

In addition, the government announced it will send experts in psychological operations and legal affairs to join the mission.

___

Michael reported from Cairo.

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