Asian Defense News: An al-Qaeda-linked terrorist strike in South Asia could lead to another military conflict between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned today (see GSN, Dec. 17, 2009).A handful of organizations within a regional al-Qaeda "syndicate" aim "to destabilize not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act," Gates told reporters in New Delhi, according to Agence France-Presse.
"It's important to recognize the magnitude of the threat that the entire region faces," he added, saying the al-Qaeda "umbrella" included the Taliban groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan was well as the Pakistani-based extremist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to have masterminded the 2008 terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai (Agence France-Presse/Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 20).
"It's dangerous to single out any one of these groups and say, 'If we can beat that group, that will solve the problem,' because they are in effect a syndicate of terrorist operators intended to destabilize this entire region," Gates said. He argued that "a victory for one" of the organizations "is a victory for all," the Associated Press reported.
New Delhi and Islamabad have already gone to war three times. While they successfully avoided additional violence following the Mumbai strike, another such incident could stretch New Delhi's tolerance over militant groups based in Pakistan, Gates cautioned: "It is not unreasonable to assume that Indian patience would be limited were there another attack."
Gates' stop in New Delhi included talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2009; Anne Gearan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 20).
Washington is "pretty confident of our intelligence-sharing relationship," one high-level U.S. official told the Washington Post, adding it was going to take a collective effort to dismantle and defeat" the terrorist groups (Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, Jan. 19).
"It's important to recognize the magnitude of the threat that the entire region faces," he added, saying the al-Qaeda "umbrella" included the Taliban groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan was well as the Pakistani-based extremist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to have masterminded the 2008 terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai (Agence France-Presse/Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 20).
"It's dangerous to single out any one of these groups and say, 'If we can beat that group, that will solve the problem,' because they are in effect a syndicate of terrorist operators intended to destabilize this entire region," Gates said. He argued that "a victory for one" of the organizations "is a victory for all," the Associated Press reported.
New Delhi and Islamabad have already gone to war three times. While they successfully avoided additional violence following the Mumbai strike, another such incident could stretch New Delhi's tolerance over militant groups based in Pakistan, Gates cautioned: "It is not unreasonable to assume that Indian patience would be limited were there another attack."
Gates' stop in New Delhi included talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2009; Anne Gearan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 20).
Washington is "pretty confident of our intelligence-sharing relationship," one high-level U.S. official told the Washington Post, adding it was going to take a collective effort to dismantle and defeat" the terrorist groups (Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, Jan. 19).
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