The Bush administration has offered military assistance to Pakistan for carrying out joint air strikes to destroy the terrorist training infrastructure.
LAHORE: While claiming that hundreds of Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists are being given military training at nine different locations in the North Waziristan tribal region, the Bush administration has offered military assistance to Pakistan for carrying out joint air strikes to destroy the terrorist training infrastructure of the Osama-led terror outfit.
According to highly placed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, in their most recent communiqué with the Pakistani high ups, top American officials have pointed out nine different locations where they say terrorist training camps are working in collaboration with several banned Pakistani jihadi groups.
The sources said that while expressing its desire to act against these camps at the earliest, Washington has offered tactical and intelligence assistance to Islamabad, but without involving American troops.
While suggesting immediate air strikes against known terrorist compounds in the tribal areas, the sources said that the Americans further desire the Muharraf regime to carry out a large-scale ground offensive across the border from Afghanistan by sending troops to rumble through villages in the hunt for top Al-Qaeda leaders.
Pakistan’s response to the American ‘offer’ is still awaited, with the White House spokesman Tony Snow hinting on July 22 at the possibility of American air strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan.
Diplomatic sources in Islamabad say that as per the US intelligence findings, most of the Al-Qaeda cells functional in the urban areas of Pakistan have either been caught or exposed and they are no more in a position to operate effectively.
Yet the perceived threat happens to be the fast-growing network based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, especially in the North and the South Waziristan tribal regions on the Pak-Afghan border which are now being described as a haven for the Al-Qaeda terrorists.
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