LeT leader confesses involvement in 26/11 attacks

The paper said Pakistan8217;s own investigation of terror attacks in Mumbai have begun to show substantive links between the LeT and 10 gunmen who took part in the Mumbai mission.

Pakistani security officials were quoted as saying that a top Lashkar commander, Zarar Shah, has admitted a role in the Mumbai attack during interrogation.

The paper quoted a person familiar with investigation as saying that Shah also admitted that the attackers spent at least a few weeks in Karachi, training in urban combat to hone skills they would use in their assault.

The disclosure, it said, could add new international pressure on Pakistan to accept that the attacks, which left 183 dead in India, originated within its borders and to prosecute or extradite the suspects.

That raises difficult and potentially destabilising issues for the country8217;s new civilian government, its military and the spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence 8212; which is conducting interrogations of militants it once cultivated as partners, the Journal said.

8220;He is singing,8221; the security official said of Shah.

The admission, the official told the paper, is backed up by US intercepts of a phone call between Shah and one of the attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the site of a 60-hour confrontation with Indian security forces.

A second person familiar with the investigation was quoted by the Journal as saying that Shah told Pakistani interrogators that he was one of the key planners of the operation, and that he spoke with the attackers during the rampage to give them advice and keep them focused.

Shah, the paper said, was picked up along with fellow Lashkar commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi during the military camp raids in PoK.

The probe, the Journal said, also is stress-testing an uncomfortable shift under way at Pakistan8217;s spy agency 8211; and the government 8212; since the election of civilian leadership replacing the military-led regime earlier this year.

Military and intelligence officials, it says, acknowledge they have long seen India as their primary enemy and Islamist extremists such as Lashkar as allies.

But now the ISI is in the midst of being revamped, and its ranks purged of those seen as too soft on Islamic militants.

That revamp and the Mumbai attacks are in turn putting pressure on the civilian leadership, which risks a backlash among the population 8212; and among elements of ISI and the military 8212; if it is too accommodating to India.

8220;The ISI can make or break any regime in Pakistan,8221; retired Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, a former army chief, was quoted as saying. 8220;Don8217;t fight the ISI.8221;

The delicate politics of the Mumbai investigation, the Journal said, have given the spy agency renewed sway just when the government was trying to limit its influence. A Western diplomat told the paper that the question now is what Pakistan will do with the evidence it is developing.

Israel mulls truce offer on day 4 of Gaza strikes

Gaza City

Israel, under international pressure, is considering a 48-hour halt to its punishing four-day air campaign on Hamas targets in Gaza to see if Palestinian militants will stop their rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

Any offer would be coupled with a threat to send in ground troops if the rocket fire continues.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed the proposal _ floated by France8217;s foreign minister _ and other possible next steps with his foreign and defense ministers, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to make the information public.

President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called leaders in the Middle East to press for a durable solution beyond any immediate truce.

And members of the Quartet of world powers trying to promote Mideast peace concluded a conference call with an appeal for an immediate ceasefire. The Quartet powers are the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

The European Union itself late Tuesday also urged an immediate truce and for Israel to reopen borders to allow vital supplies to reach Gazans. The Paris statement by the 27-member bloc avoided blaming either side for the current fighting.

In its Tuesday night meeting, Israel8217;s leadership trio stepped up preparations for a ground offensive, conducting a telephone survey among Cabinet ministers on a plan to call up an additional 2,500 reserve soldiers, if required. Earlier this week, the Cabinet authorized a call-up of 6,700 soldiers.

After the four-hour meeting, Olmert8217;s office issued a statement early Wednesday saying no details of the discussion would be made public because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

But Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren8217;t authorized to release information on the meeting, said the leaders wanted Hamas to agree to stop the rocket fire before Israel considers a truce.

And even amid talk of a truce, Israeli warplanes continued to unload bombs on targets in Gaza. Powerful airstrikes caused Gaza City8217;s high-rise apartment buildings to sway and showered streets with broken glass and pulverized concrete. Israel8217;s ground forces on Gaza8217;s border also used artillery for the first time.

Early Wednesday, Israeli aircraft pounded smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, setting off a huge explosion in a fuel tunnel, witnesses said, as other aircraft hit Hamas positions in Gaza City. No casualties were reported. The military said government buildings were hit, including an office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

A Palestinian medic was killed and two others wounded when an Israeli missile struck next to their ambulance during a clash east of Gaza City, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said it did not know of the incident.

Hamas kept up its rocket barrages, which have killed four Israelis since the weekend, and sent many more in running for bomb shelters _ some of them in cities under threat of attack for the first time, as the range of the rockets grows.

A medium-range rocket hit the city of Beersheba for the first time ever, zooming 28 miles deep into Israel and slamming into an empty kindergarten. A second rocket landed in an open area near the desert city, Israel8217;s fifth-largest. The military said later it successfully struck the group that launched those rockets.

A pattern of daytime lulls and nighttime spikes in rocket fire appeared to be emerging as militants found safer launch cover in darkness.

Four days into a campaign that has killed 374 Palestinians and prompted Arab and international condemnation, a diplomatic push to end the fighting gathered pace.

In two phone calls to Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday and Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner appealed to him to consider a truce to allow time for humanitarian relief supplies to enter the beleaguered Gaza Strip, two senior officials in Barak8217;s office said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was expected to travel Thursday to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has put his growing international stature to use in other conflict zones, most recently to help halt fighting between Russia and Georgia in August.

Israeli media reported that Sarkozy would also travel to Jerusalem Monday for talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

A Hamas spokesman said any halt to militant rocket and mortar fire would require an end to Israel8217;s crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. 8220;If they halt the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions,8221; said Mushir Masri.

Any ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would face questions about its long-term viability. In the past, Hamas has been unable or unwilling to rein in all the militants, some of which belong to different factions. Israel has angered the Palestinians by continuing to target Hamas leaders and by maintaining a blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israel8217;s military, meanwhile, pressed on, sending warplanes to strike a Gaza government complex that includes the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and justice. Bombs ripped the tops and sides from buildings that had already been evacuated and left fires blazing in upper floors.

It was the largest government target hit so far and involved the largest number of bombs dropped in a single strike _ at least 16 in all.

The airstrikes have sent the people of densely populated Gaza on a zigzagging desperate search for safer ground _ hard to find with no way out of the blockaded territory.

8220;I don8217;t know what8217;s safe anymore,8221; said university student Rasha Khaldeh of Gaza City. She fled her home, fearing Israel would target her Hamas neighbors, then had to leave her uncle8217;s house because of nearby shelling. She listens intently for the approach of pilotless Israeli drones.

After nightfall, Israel destroyed 40 tunnels under the sealed Gaza-Egypt border in another attempt to cut the vital lifeline that supplies Gaza with both commercial goods and weapons for Hamas and other militant groups.

Israel kept up the attack on the tunnels early Wednesday, as other aircraft hit Hamas positions in Gaza City.

Israel8217;s military said it hit 31 targets on Tuesday, including a Cabinet building, rocket-launching sites, and places were missiles were being built. Some of the hits on sites with weapons stockpiles triggered secondary explosions.

A spokesman for Hamas8217; military wing, Abu Obeida, said the group remained strong, and he vowed to fight on as long as Israel continues its airstrikes. He noted that even while under heavy airstrikes, militants had fired rockets that reached Israeli towns farther from Gaza than ever. 8220;Rockets will be on your daily agenda,8221; he said in a message to Israelis.

And if there8217;s a ground invasion, he promised worse: 8220;If you enter Gaza, the children will collect your flesh and the remains of your tanks which will be spread out through the streets.8221;

The offensive came shortly after a rocky, six-month truce expired.

Emad Falluji, a former Hamas leader working at a Gaza-based think tank, said he believes Hamas had wanted to renew the truce but felt humiliated by Israel8217;s decision to maintain a tight blockade on Gaza.

8220;Israel didn8217;t want to give Hamas anything in return for the ceasefire, which was effectively free,8221; he said.

Egypt, which has been blockading Gaza from its southern end, has come under pressure from the rest of the Arab world to reopen its border with the territory because of the Israeli campaign. Egypt has pried open the border to let in some of Gaza8217;s wounded and to allow some humanitarian supplies into the territory. But it quickly sealed the border when Gazans tried to push through forcefully.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responded to critics, including the leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who have accused him of collaborating with Israel.

8220;We tell anybody who seeks political profits on the account of the Palestinian people: The Palestinian blood is not cheap,8221; he said, describing such comments as 8220;exploiting the blood of the Palestinians.8221;

Mubarak said his country would not throw open the border crossing unless Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas _ a Hamas rival _ regains control of the border post. Mubarak has been rattled by the presence of a neighboring Islamic ministate in Gaza, fearing it would fuel more Islamic dissidence in Egypt.

Most of the Palestinians killed since Saturday were members of Hamas security forces but the number included at least 64 civilians, according to U.N. figures. Among those killed were two sisters, Haya and Lama Hamdan, ages 4 and 12, who died in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

Throughout the offensive, Israel8217;s military has released video taken by hovering drone aircraft showing its missiles and bombs hurtling into Gaza targets, including one on Tuesday that sent about a half-dozen bombs simultaneously into a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border.

During brief lulls between airstrikes, Gazans tentatively ventured into the streets to buy goods and collect belongings from homes they had abandoned after Israel8217;s aerial onslaught began Saturday.

The campaign has brought a new reality to southern Israel, too, where one-tenth of the country8217;s population of 7 million has suddenly found itself within rocket range.

8220;It8217;s very scary,8221; said Yaacov Pardida, a 55-year-old resident of Ashdod, southern Israel8217;s largest city, which was hit Monday. 8220;I never imagined that this could happen, that they could reach us here.8221;

The big fear in the West and India is a repeat of what happened after a 2001 attack on India8217;s parliament, which led to the ban on Lashkar.

Top militant leaders were arrested only to be released months later, the Journal noted. Lashkar and other groups continued to operate openly, even though formal ISI links were scaled back or closed, the diplomat was quoted as saying.

8220;They8217;ve got the guys. They have the confessions. What do they do now?8221; the diplomat said. 8220;We need to see that this is more than a show. We want to see the entire infrastructure of terror dismantled. There needs to be real prosecutions this time.8221;

A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Farhatullah Babar, was quoted as saying yesterday that he wasn8217;t aware of the Pakistani investigation yet producing any links between Lashkar militants and the Mumbai attacks.

8220;The Interior Ministry has already stated that the government of Pakistan has not been furnished with any evidence,8221; he said.

The Pakistani security official, it said, cautioned that the investigation is still in early stages and a 8220;more full picture8221; could emerge once India decides to share more information.

Pakistani authorities didn8217;t have evidence that LeT was involved in the attacks before the militants8217; arrest in PoK, the security official claimed. They were captured based only on initial guidance from US and British authorities.