american troops get on the ground that mission is more and more urgent because obviously these people are a massive threat to u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. then there s that complicated threat of terrorism which brings us to the other part of the story. let s go to nic robertson in abby dabby. . reporter: according to german counterterrorism officials, ahmad sidiqi was picked up in kabul in july and transferred to u.s. custody and they say he began to talk a lot and talk about the mumbai style plot to attack different cities in europe, in great britain and france and germany. being gunmen with explosives going into hotels or other similar soft targets where they could shoot people up. that has caused, according to a u.s. counterterrorism, u.s. intelligence officials, has caused an uptick in drone strikes in pakistan targeting
of those two taliban commanders. let s go to fred . these drone attacks have been increasing in pakistan. what s behind that? increasing in a magsive way. we ve counted 20 drone attacks into pack stack thkistan this m. one of the reasons is that al qaeda and taliban operatives are moving from pakistan into afghanistan. it s long been a thorn for the u.s. to see that these operatives have somewhat of a safe haven in various areas here in pakistan especially in north waziristan. the u.s. military, u.s. government has been telling pakistan to send its army into those areas to crack down on those militants. so far that s happened to a certain extent but not really in a are the of areas. so what we re seeing is the u.s. taking matters into its own hands. and of course as more and more
area in pakistan, in the border with afghanistan for so long. if those areas were to one day be secured, is that enough of a hit to al qaeda that they really can t operate as effectively? reporter: it will be in the short term when you take out those camps, but let s look at the bigger picture here. you ve got al qaeda operating out of yemen. they ve got a franchise there. that was the franchise that sent the bomber abdul, christmas day on that flight to detroit. you ve got the al qaeda group operating in in in somalia, rather, drawing recruits from the united states. you ve got al qaeda groups working in the north of africa. so you can wrap them up in pakistan, but they re elsewhere, too, ali. nic robertson, paul, thanks very much. we ll continue this conversation in the next hour. when we come back we re off to michigan where a student body president is learning a tough lesson in sexual politics.
banks and stock exchanges. at the same time, developments on the battlefields in afghanistan and pakistan that are linked to the plot, apparently. here are key points. authorities say a german citizen of afghan descent is in custody spelling out the terror plan, like the terror plot in mumbai that killed 164 people two years ago. osama bin laden apparently approved the plan. no word so far if threats were also made against the united states. now, to the war zone in afghanistan and pakistan. nato says an air strike killed a top al qaeda commander in northern afghanistan along its border with pakistan. the u.s. recently increased the number of drone attacks in pakistan, and this may be due in part to information on the terror plot. drone targets in pakistan include taliban and al qaeda forces and militants linked to al qaeda. and the taliban denied claims made by the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus, that the taliban wants, was in contact with
called the corner valley, an area u.s. forces recently evacuated after spending five years fighting there and losing at least 40 american lives. and sad piece of news. a nato isap soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan today. a bloody year in afghanistan. ali? stay with us. going to fred, an interest in drone attacks inside pakistan. tell us the significance of this. why is that happening and what s different about what s happening? reporter: well, one of the reasons, ali, what s happening, because there s so much cross-border transition between taliban and al qaeda from pakistan into afghanistan. of course, a lot of taliban and al qaeda leaders are using pakistan as a safe haven especially the north waziristan area. the u.s. has been telling the pakistani army to go in there and clean that place up a long