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U.S. Troops Hunting Al-Qaeda In Tribal Areas, Says Gates
Washington, 10 May (AKI/DAWN) - US defence secretary Robert Gates has told a congressional panel that the United States has military missions in Pakistan's tribal areas to go after al-Qaeda leaders hiding there. At a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee late on Wednesday, Gates said al-Qaeda had established training facilities in the Federally-Administered Territories (FATA) and the extremist leaders based there also had links to terror cells in other parts of the world."We know that al-Qaeda has re-established itself in the Federally-Administered Territories on the western border of Pakistan where they are training new recruits, Gates told the Senate panel while defending his departments budget for 2008. They have established linkages now in North Africa. And so al-Qaeda has actually expanded, I would say, its organisation and its capabilities. Expounding on his statement, Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat, asked Gates if there were US military missions in that area pursuing al-Qaeda activists.Yes, sir. We are still going after the al-Qaeda leadership, said Gates. He then explained that al-Qaeda was operating from an area which was difficult, both in terms of terrain and in terms of politics, in terms of our ability to range freely in that area. He said as he had indicated earlier, most of al-Qaeda activities were concentrated in the western part of Pakistan in the FATA. "But we do have military operations that are planned not just in North Waziristan and Iraq, but in other places as well, to go after Al Qaeda leadership, he added. Posted by: Steve 2007-05-10 |
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