Talat Masood

President Obama's announcement that the United States will pull 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next summer was met with muted concern Thursday in India and Pakistan as analysts, policymakers and military brass scrambled to assess the implications for their respective nations. Though Washington had telegraphed the troop reduction for months, it was larger and faster than many had expected. In Pakistan, the news was generally applauded. The South Asian nation has bridled at U.S. regional influence, CIA drones in its airspace and what it saw as the American intrusion on its sovereignty in May in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad.

President Obama's announcement that the United States will pull 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next summer was met with muted concern Thursday in India and Pakistan as analysts, policymakers and military brass scrambled to assess the implications for their respective nations. Though Washington had telegraphed the troop reduction for months, it was larger and faster than many had expected. In Pakistan, the news was generally applauded. The South Asian nation has bridled at U.S. regional influence, CIA drones in its airspace and what it saw as the American intrusion on its sovereignty in May in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad.

Pakistani security forces on Monday retook control of a naval base in Karachi that had been under siege by militants for 17 hours, but the brazen, commando-style attack renewed disturbing questions about the military's ability to defend sensitive installations, including its nuclear arsenal. A team of 10 to 15 militants armed with rocket launchers, AK-47s and hand grenades stormed the Mehran Naval Station late Sunday, destroyed two U.S.-supplied maritime surveillance aircraft at the base and then engaged Pakistani navy commandos and soldiers in a pitched firefight that ended late Monday afternoon.

The team of Islamist militants knew exactly where the naval base's weak spot was. Dressed in black and armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, they crept up to the back wall of Mehran Naval Station in Karachi, keeping clear of security cameras. Then, with just a pair of ladders, they clambered over the wall, cutting through barbed wire at the top, to launch a 17-hour siege that would renew disturbing questions about the Pakistani military's ability to defend sensitive installations, including its nuclear arsenal.

With talks accelerating between the Afghan government and portions of the Afghan Taliban leadership hiding in Pakistan, the Pakistani government appears to have been brushed aside, an exclusion that analysts warn could dramatically worsen Islamabad's already fragile relationship with Washington and Kabul and jeopardize prospects for peace in Afghanistan. A senior advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai indirectly confirmed Wednesday that some Afghan Taliban leaders based in Pakistan were in talks with the Afghan government.

The team of Islamist militants knew exactly where the naval base's weak spot was. Dressed in black and armed with AK-47 rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, they crept up to the back wall of Mehran Naval Station in Karachi, keeping clear of security cameras. Then, with just a pair of ladders, they clambered over the wall, cutting through barbed wire at the top, to launch a 17-hour siege that would renew disturbing questions about the Pakistani military's ability to defend sensitive installations, including its nuclear arsenal.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - After a resounding victory in Pakistan's national elections, presumptive new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could have pressed his populist, hard-line approach that paints the U.S. as hopelessly malevolent and self-interested. Instead, Sharif, who served as prime minister in the 1990s, and his top aides have tried during the last few days to ensure that Washington does not feel alienated by his return to power. Sharif's team has denounced claims by critics who call him soft on militants and emphasized that the tension between Pakistan and the United States tied to American drone strikes and other issues cannot be resolved through threats and condemnation.

Pakistan will allow Indian airlines to resume flights in its airspace, the president said Sunday -- the latest sign of improving relations between the South Asian nuclear rivals. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, said his nation would agree to a resumption of overflights when the countries begin two days of talks today in New Delhi, the state news agency reported.

Although the U.S. military located and killed the most wanted terrorist in Iraq, finding Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remains a tougher task, officials and analysts said Thursday. The mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, who avoids using satellite phones and the Internet, is probably holed up in rugged, remote terrain along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and protected by extremely loyal tribesmen.

Islamic extremists attacked and seized a small Pakistani army fort near the Afghan border, leaving at least 22 soldiers dead or missing. A military spokesman said this morning that the militants had left the fort and disappeared into the surrounding hills. Although the fighters did not gain significant ground in the attack Tuesday night on Sararogha Fort, they did further erode confidence in the U.S.

Pakistani security forces on Monday retook control of a naval base in Karachi that had been under siege by militants for 17 hours, but the brazen, commando-style attack renewed disturbing questions about the military's ability to defend sensitive installations, including its nuclear arsenal. A team of 10 to 15 militants armed with rocket launchers, AK-47s and hand grenades stormed the Mehran Naval Station late Sunday, destroyed two U.S.-supplied maritime surveillance aircraft at the base and then engaged Pakistani navy commandos and soldiers in a pitched firefight that ended late Monday afternoon.

With talks accelerating between the Afghan government and portions of the Afghan Taliban leadership hiding in Pakistan, the Pakistani government appears to have been brushed aside, an exclusion that analysts warn could dramatically worsen Islamabad's already fragile relationship with Washington and Kabul and jeopardize prospects for peace in Afghanistan. A senior advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai indirectly confirmed Wednesday that some Afghan Taliban leaders based in Pakistan were in talks with the Afghan government.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Sunday when a bomb exploded just seconds after his motorcade had passed a bridge in this city near the capital, Islamabad. No one was hurt. Military trucks and soldiers immediately cordoned off the area around the bridge as bomb experts and other investigators sifted through rubble, witnesses said.