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Members of Pakistan's spy agency are pressing Taliban field commanders to fight the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials and Afghan militants say, a development that undercuts a key element of the Pentagon's strategy for ending the war.
The explosive accusation is the strongest yet in a series of U.S. criticisms of Pakistan, and shows a deteriorating relationship with an essential ally in the Afghan campaign. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and development aid to Pakistan for its support.
The U.S. and Afghanistan have sought to persuade midlevel Taliban commanders to lay down their weapons in exchange for jobs or cash. The most recent Afghan effort at starting a peace process took place this week in Kabul.
But few Taliban have given up the fight, officials say. Some Taliban commanders and U.S. officials say militant leaders are being pressured by officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency not to surrender.
"The ISI wants to arrest commanders who are not obeying [ISI] orders," said a Taliban commander in Kunar province.
U.S. officials say they have heard similar reports from captured militants and those negotiating to lay down their arms.
A senior Pakistani official dismissed the allegation, insisting Islamabad is fighting militants, not aiding them.
The Taliban commander in Kunar, like others interviewed in recent days, said he remained opposed to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and had no plans to stop fighting them. But "the ISI wants us to kill everyone—policemen, soldiers, engineers, teachers, civilians—just to intimidate people," the commander said.
He said he refused, and that the ISI had tried to arrest him. "Afghans are all brothers; tomorrow we could be sitting together in one room."
The allegations of interference by the Pakistani spy agency come amid a new U.S. strategic focus on Pakistan as key territory in the Afghan war.
Gen. David Petraeus, who took over in July as the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, has come to see militant havens in Pakistan, from which the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network of radicals stage attacks in Afghanistan, as a greater threat than he had previously assessed them to be, according to officials.
Pakistan says its forces are stretched too thin to fight all militants—particularly with some soldiers redeployed to aid relief efforts from massive flooding this summer.
The ISI helped bring the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. After the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Islamabad officially broke with the movement and sided with the U.S.
U.S. officials have said since then that some ISI elements maintained links to the Taliban and other Islamist extremist groups to guarantee Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan after an eventual American withdrawal.
Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...251361592.html
The explosive accusation is the strongest yet in a series of U.S. criticisms of Pakistan, and shows a deteriorating relationship with an essential ally in the Afghan campaign. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and development aid to Pakistan for its support.
The U.S. and Afghanistan have sought to persuade midlevel Taliban commanders to lay down their weapons in exchange for jobs or cash. The most recent Afghan effort at starting a peace process took place this week in Kabul.
But few Taliban have given up the fight, officials say. Some Taliban commanders and U.S. officials say militant leaders are being pressured by officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency not to surrender.
"The ISI wants to arrest commanders who are not obeying [ISI] orders," said a Taliban commander in Kunar province.
U.S. officials say they have heard similar reports from captured militants and those negotiating to lay down their arms.
A senior Pakistani official dismissed the allegation, insisting Islamabad is fighting militants, not aiding them.
The Taliban commander in Kunar, like others interviewed in recent days, said he remained opposed to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and had no plans to stop fighting them. But "the ISI wants us to kill everyone—policemen, soldiers, engineers, teachers, civilians—just to intimidate people," the commander said.
He said he refused, and that the ISI had tried to arrest him. "Afghans are all brothers; tomorrow we could be sitting together in one room."
The allegations of interference by the Pakistani spy agency come amid a new U.S. strategic focus on Pakistan as key territory in the Afghan war.
Gen. David Petraeus, who took over in July as the top coalition commander in Afghanistan, has come to see militant havens in Pakistan, from which the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network of radicals stage attacks in Afghanistan, as a greater threat than he had previously assessed them to be, according to officials.
Pakistan says its forces are stretched too thin to fight all militants—particularly with some soldiers redeployed to aid relief efforts from massive flooding this summer.
The ISI helped bring the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. After the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Islamabad officially broke with the movement and sided with the U.S.
U.S. officials have said since then that some ISI elements maintained links to the Taliban and other Islamist extremist groups to guarantee Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan after an eventual American withdrawal.
Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...251361592.html
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