[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The United States is threatening to launch air strikes on Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership in Quetta as frustration mounts about the ease with which they (allegedly) find sanctuary across the border from Afghanistan, reports The Sunday Times.The Biden camp argues that attacks by unmanned drones on Pakistan's tribal areas, where al-Qaeda's leaders are (believed to be) hiding, have been successful. Sending more troops to Afghanistan has only inflamed tensions.
The Afghan election has strengthened the position of those in Washington who advocate eliminating Taliban leaders in Pakistan.Senior Pakistani officials in New York revealed that the US had asked to extend the drone attacks into Quetta and other parts of Balochistan. "It wasn't so much a threat as an understanding that if you don't do anything, we'll take matters into our own hands," said one.
The problem is that while the government of President Asif Zardari is committed to wiping out terrorism, Pakistan's powerful military does not entirely share this view, the paper claimed. Earlier this year, there was optimism that Pakistan had turned a corner after it confronted a Taliban group that had taken over the Swat Valley.
There has been tacit cooperation over the use of drones. Some are even stationed inside Pakistan, although publicly the government denounces their use, the paper said. Suspicions remain among US officials that parts of Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the ISI, are supporting the Taliban and protecting Mullah Omar and other leaders in Quetta.
It was to shore up Zardari's domestic standing that Obama attended a Friends of Pakistan summit in New York on Thursday. On the same day, the US Senate tripled non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year.
The Obama administration hopes such moves will reduce anti-American feelings in Pakistan. A survey last month by the Pew Research Centre found that almost two-thirds regarded the US as an enemy.
Drone attacks on Quetta would intensify this sentiment, causing some British officials to argue that such missions would be "unthinkable". However, the paper added, the Pakistani government is reluctant to take its own action.
| "We need real-time intelligence," said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. "The Americans have never told us any location." |
| Western intelligence officers say Pakistan has been moving Taliban leaders to Karachi. |
The threat of air strikes on Quetta comes amid growing divisions in Washington about whether to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan by sending more troops or by reducing them and targeting the terrorists.
This weekend the US military was expected to send a request to Robert Gates, the defence secretary, for more troops, as urged by General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander there. In a leaked strategic assessment of the war, McChrystal warned that he needed extra reinforcements within a year to avert the risk of failure. Although no figure was given, he is believed to be seeking up to 40,000 troops to add to the 68,000 who will be in Afghanistan by the end of this year.
However, with President Barack Obama under pressure from fellow Democrats not to intensify the war, the administration has let it be known that it is rethinking strategy. Vice-President Joe Biden has suggested reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan and focusing on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
Last week McChrystal denied any rift with the administration, saying "a policy debate is warranted". According to The New York Times, he flew from Kabul to Ramstein airbase in Germany on Friday for a secret meeting with Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss the request for more troops.
So sensitive is the subject that when Obama addressed the United Nations summit in New York, he barely mentioned Afghanistan. The unspoken problem is that if the priority is to destroy al-Qaeda and reduce the global terrorist threat, Western troops might be fighting on the wrong side of the border.