Terror allies waging turf war (Afghan & Pakistan)

Only days after President George W. Bush visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, the two key U.S. allies are battling each other in a way that analysts say can only undermine the fight against terrorism.

The governments of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have publicly accused each other of permitting the resurgence, along their border, of militant Islamic Taliban guerrillas. The squabble both reflects and worsens deep suspicions between the countries that hamper the effort to fight a coordinated counterinsurgency, said Talat Masood, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general...

The need for coordination has been underscored by a weeklong battle, one of the fiercest in the war on the Pakistani side of the border, between Pakistani troops and militant guerrillas. The fighting is in North Waziristan, a region that Afghan and U.S. military officials say is a launching pad for Taliban operations in Afghanistan. Thousands of mostly poor ethnic Pashtuns have fled the fighting, and the region's capital, Miramshah, was barely functioning yesterday, refugees said.


Only three weeks ago, Karzai and Musharraf spoke congenially after meeting here. "We are joined together like twins, inseparable. Nothing can come between us," Karzai said then.