World | Pakistan
Mullen visit feeds Pakistan's worry over US attack
The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan on the weekend, fuelling speculation that the US was about to take action against militants in northwest Pakistan.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:08 July 14, 2008
Islamabad: The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan on the weekend, fuelling speculation that the US was about to take action against militants in northwest Pakistan.
Pakistan has been a close US ally in the global campaign against terrorism but the US has become increasingly frustrated at what it sees as insufficient effort by Islamabad to fight militants on the Afghan border.
A US embassy spokeswoman confirmed that Mullen had made a one-day trip to Pakistan on Saturday, but said she had no details about his meetings. Pakistani military and government spokesmen were not available for comment.
High-level talks
Pakistani newspapers said Mullen, in talks with Pakistani military commanders and leaders of a new government, had expressed deep frustration with growing cross-border militant attacks and had called for decisive action to stop it.
"Sources quoted Mullen as complaining that militants were moving across the border with greater liberty now than during the previous government," the Dawn newspaper said.
Pakistan's semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal belt on the border has became a sanctuary for Al Qaida and Taliban militants fighting Western soldiers in Afghanistan and against security forces in Pakistan where 15 soldiers were killed on Saturday.
The Pentagon said last month insurgent havens in Pakistan were the biggest threat to Afghan security. Pakistan has ruled out allowing foreign troops onto its soil although US pilotless drones have been increasing their flights, and attacks, over the Pakistani side of the border.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi sought in Washington on Friday to assure the US his country was doing all it could to fight militants on the border.
What Pakistanis see as a more aggressive US action on the border has fuelled speculation of a US thrust.
Last month, eleven Pakistani border soldiers were killed in a US air strike as US forces battled Taliban militants.
On Saturday, Pakistan lodged a protest with the US over fire from Afghanistan on Thursday that wounded six Pakistani soldiers. Afghanistan's Nato force blamed militants for the fire saying they were trying to "spark a border incident".
Feeding the worry, some US politicians, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, have said the US could attack Al Qaida inside Pakistan without Pakistani approval.
A new government took power after President Pervez Musharraf's allies were defeated in February elections, vowing to negotiate an end to violence, but US commanders in Afghanistan say such peace efforts have led to more militant attacks there.
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