US would not hesitate to hit al Qaeda 'safe havens' in Pak

Afghanistan News.Net
Thursday 16th August, 2007

Washington, Aug 16 : The US State Department has said that Washington would not hesitate to hit 'high-value' al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan or any other country, but would do so in a way that it does not harm America's relations with that state.

"If there is actionable intelligence on high-value targets, wherever they might be, we are going to do everything that we can to act on that information," State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said.

"And we are confident that we would be able to do that in such a way that we don't harm our relations with any states that may be in question, whether that's Pakistan, Afghanistan or some other state," he added.

The debate over a possible US strike against suspected al Qaeda targets started late last month when a US intelligence report claimed that terrorist organisation had established a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal territory, the Dawn reported.

Later, several senior US officials said that if they had 'actionable' intelligence about suspected al Qaeda hideouts inside Pakistan, they would launch direct military strikes at those targets.

The statements caused a bitter reaction in Islamabad where both government and opposition leaders said that such an attack would violate Pakistan's territorial integrity.

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