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Al-Qaeda gains influence along Afghan border

Al-Qaeda appears to be increasing its influence among Islamist militant groups along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, with offers of money, training and other assistance, US experts say.

Osama bin Laden's group, which has been rebuilding in safe havens in Pakistan for over a year, has taken a prominent role in a new effort by the Taliban and other radical organizations to coordinate their operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We are seeing an increase in cooperation between the [Afghan] insurgents as well as the terrorists led by al-Qaeda. They are increasing in their coordination," said US Army Major General David Rodriguez, commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.

"They're cross-fertilizing their tactics, techniques and procedures and also again getting resourcing mainly from al-Qaeda, who is the central player in the terrorism equation," he said in a videolink from Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Some analysts say the violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan constitutes a single struggle against a cross-border militant threat in the Pashtun region.

"It really always has been. The fact is that we drove the Taliban into Pakistan, along with the other Islamist elements [after the 2001 invasion]," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Al-Qaeda has long played a role in militant activity along the border region by providing training and information operations for groups in both countries. But some analysts believe al-Qaeda may now be trying to compensate for weakened Taliban influence in eastern Afghanistan that resulted from NATO's capturing or killing a number of Taliban leaders last year.

In other news, a US aid worker and her Afghan colleague kidnapped in Kandahar a month ago have been killed, their employer said, citing unconfirmed information received in recent days.

The governor of Kandahar, where the two were snatched on Jan. 26, could not immediately confirm the statement posted on the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation's Web site on Tuesday.

"We are deeply grieved to report the apparent deaths of Muhammad Hadi and Cyd Mizell, workers who were kidnapped by gunmen on January 26 in Kandahar, Afghanistan," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel survived a rocket and small arms ambush by suspected Taliban insurgents to the east of Kabul yesterday.

SINGAPORE

The accused head of the Singapore wing of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) escaped yesterday afternoon from a detention center, the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

A manhunt for Mas Selamat bin Kastari was underway, the ministry said in a statement.

Kastari was arrested by the Indonesian police on Bintan island in January 2006 and sent to Singapore, where he was wanted for involvement in planned attacks on Changi Airport.
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