The US-led coalition in Afghanistan on Tuesday denied reports that American forces are pushing to expand special operations raids into tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan.
Nato’s deputy chief of communications, US Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said there was no truth to a report published in The New York Times.
Citing unnamed American officials in Washington, the Times reported on its website late Monday that US military commanders believe special operations forces could capture militants for interrogation, bringing in an intelligence windfall.
”There is absolutely no truth to reporting in The New York Times that US forces are planning to conduct ground operations into Pakistan,” Smith said.
He added that Nato and US forces, along with ”their Afghan partners, have developed a strong working relationship with the Pakistan military to address shared security issues. This coordination recognises the sovereignty of Afghanistan and Pakistan to pursue insurgents and terrorists operating in their respective border areas.”
Pakistan has firmly rejected any suggestion of US assistance and has in the past sternly protested when the US-led alliance had crossed the border into Pakistani tribal areas.
On September 30, Pakistan closed a key border crossing for 10 days, stranding Nato resupply trucks in an apparent protest over a Nato helicopter incursion that killed two Pakistani soldiers on the border. During the closure, almost 150 stranded trucks were destroyed by attackers.
The US has mainly relied on unmanned drones to pursue al Qaeda militants based in Pakistan. A decision to deploy special operations teams would signal frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out militants who use its territory as a base to support the Taliban and other extremists.
In response to the newspaper report, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, said, ”Pakistani forces are capable of handling the militant threat within our borders and no foreign forces are allowed or required to operate inside our sovereign territory. We work with our allies, especially the US, and appreciate their material support but we will not accept foreign troops on our soil — a position that is well known.”
He noted that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had visited Pakistan recently and had ”acknowledged Pakistan’s contribution. Nothing discussed during his trip indicates the likelihood of ill-advised escalation or unilateral action by Nato troops beyond their mandate in Afghanistan.”
Last week, Mullen said in Kabul that he thought it was possible the Pakistani military could shut down Taliban hideouts on its soil to prevent insurgents from moving back and forth across the long, porous border with Afghanistan. He added that fixing the problem was critical to making progress in the war and that he was encouraged by what Pakistan had already done to go after insurgents on its side of the border.
Pakistan has made progress against safe havens over the past year in operations that have taken a toll on its forces, according to a five-page public summary of the White House’s classified Afghanistan War review that was released last week.
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