The US is worried about the growing outreach of terror groups based in Pakistan, including the LeT, Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Tehrik-e-Taliban and their strong linkages with al-Qaeda, Mullen said.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba is more than an anti-India terror group as it has "global aspirations" and has extended its reach to the West, US joint chiefs of staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has said.
The US is worried about the growing outreach of terror groups based in Pakistan, including the LeT, Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Tehrik-e-Taliban and their strong linkages with al-Qaeda, Mullen said during an interaction with the media in Islamabad yesterday.
"The LeT is much more than an eastern Pakistan (based) threat just focussed on India because we've seen them in the West and I see them with global aspirations," America's top military official said.
"What I worry about all these organisations, whether it is (the) Haqqani (network), al-Qaeda, LeT, JuD ?" there is a syndication which has occurred in the region here over the course of the last three years, which is more and more worrisome," he said.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Hakimullah Mehsud too has "espoused aspirations outside the region," Mullen said.
There is "more syndication" of the terror groups with similar interests than in the past and they are swiftly building on their capabilities in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said.
Mullen is believed to have raised the US military's concerns during his meetings yesterday with joint chiefs of staff committee chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne and Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
During interactions with the Pakistani media, Mullen further warned that that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency's continued links with the Haqqani militant network, based in North Waziristan tribal region, are at the core of Pakistan's strained and problematic relations with the United States.
"Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners (in Afghanistan). And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen," Mullen said.
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