US presses Pakistan on border fire
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OCT 28 -
The United States on Thursday accused Pakistan of allowing insurgents to fire on US troops in Afghanistan as it renewed its call on the uneasy war partner to crack down on extremists.
US officials have reported a sharp rise in cross-border attacks against its forces, amid a deterioration of relations after US forces secretly raided Pakistan to kill the world's most wanted man,Osama bin Laden.
Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, the deputy US commander in Afghanistan, said that rocket and mortar fire against his forces appears to come from within sight of Pakistani military posts.
"In some locations from time to time you will see what just appears to us to be a collaboration... or at a minimum a looking the other way," he told reporters in Washington via video-link.
He said that the border forces come from Pakistan's Frontier Corps, who are locally recruited and not as highly trained as regular army units.
Top US officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week visited Pakistan to press for action against Islamic extremists, particularly the Haqqani network, which is blamed for anti-US attacks in Afghanistan.
"I explained that trying to distinguish between so-called good terrorists and bad terrorists is ultimately self-defeating and dangerous," Clinton said as she testified about her visit to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"No one who targets innocent civilians of any nationality should be tolerated or protected.
"We look to Pakistan to encourage the Taliban and other insurgents to participate in an Afghan peace process in good faith -- both through unequivocal public statements and by closing off the safe havens."
Clinton used unusually strong language on last week's trip, saying US tolerance had worn thin after indications the Haqqani networkis targeting Americans, including through a 19-hour siege of the US embassy in Kabul.
The top US diplomat supported the assessment of the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, who last month said that the Haqqani network was a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
US lawmakers told Clinton at the hearing that they had deep concerns about Pakistan and supported the Obama administration's decision to suspend about a third of the annual $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan.
"Our two countries are at a crossroads. We cannot sustain a partnership with Islamabad if it pursues policies that are hostile to US interests and jeopardize American lives," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the Republican-led committee.
Representative Howard Berman, the top lawmaker on the committee from Clinton's Democratic Party, also voiced concern about Pakistan but said it was critical to maintain the $1.5 billion-a-year package in civilian assistance.
"These are the critical building blocks of a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan -- and ultimately, a stable Afghanistan and South Asia," Berman said.
During Clinton's visit, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that both her country and Afghanistan can do more against militants but denied any official support for the Haqqani network.
Pakistan, once the primary backer of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, switched sides to join the United States in its military campaign after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But the partnership has been unpopular with the Pakistani public, amid a wave of violence that has killed thousands of troops and civilians.
Some experts believe that Pakistan is hedging its bets as the United States prepares to draw down its combat forces in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Clinton, who heads next week to Turkey for a major conference on Afghanistan, said that Al-Qaeda's power has been "greatly diminished" and credited in part Pakistani cooperation.
"The threat remains real and urgent, especially from Al-Qaeda's affiliates, but the group's senior leadership has been devastated," she said.
Posted on: 2011-10-28 11:02
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