AL-QAEDA VOWS TO NUKE USA

A top al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan says his men 'will' use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the US, should they be able to get their hands on any.

"God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the Mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid (Photo) said in an interview with al-Jazeera television.

• The interview comes after US and Indian officials raised concerns over the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal amid growing insurgency across the country.
• Officials in Islamabad, meanwhile, have ruled out the possibility of the nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the militants.
• Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari maintains that his country has a strong command-and-control system for its nuclear weapons.
• However, al-Yazid believes that pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan are capable of overpowering the military in the northwestern parts of the country.
  "We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) and that would be its end everywhere, God willing," he said.
• The military claims to have killed nearly 1,700 militants since it launched a crackdown in the Swat valley and its adjoining districts two months ago.
• This is while South Waziristan, in the lawless border region with Afghanistan, has been hit by air raids and military shelling in recent days.
• The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 has turned the restive tribal belt between the two neighbors into a scene of daily violence.
  Courtesy: Press TV, Al Jazeera