US hints at operation in Pakistan
USA has said that it is undertaking a major build-up of forces in eastern Afghanistan, a stronghold of Haqqani faction for a decisive push against terrorists' safe havens close to the borders of Pakistan.
Disclosing this, the secretary of defence Mr Robert Gates hinted that the operation could be one "on both sides of the border".
His comments came as he voiced concern over leaks by whistleblower website WikiLeaks that Pakistan's military Intelligence was maintaining links with Taliban and Al Qaida.
"We are increasing cooperation with the Pakistanis in terms of working on both sides of the border, in terms of trying to prevent people from crossing that border. We are increasing our forces in eastern Afghanistan that will help us do this," Mr Gates told ABC's programme "This Week".
USA and Nato forces which would swell to almost 1,50,000 by September this year have so far only concentrated on flushing out Taliban from their southern Afghanistan strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar. The American forces are yet to launch a major foray into eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Khost, Paktikia, Gardez, Logar and Ghazni which are a bastion of warlord Jalauddin Haqqani. According to US Intelligence estimates the Haqqani network now run by Jalauddin's eldest son Sirajuddin has between 3,000 to 5,000 heavily armed cadres.
The Haqqani faction, which has close ties with Al Qaida maintains sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan tribal area of Wazirsitan. Despite mounting casualties and growing public doubts in the USA, the defence secretary said that the July 2011 drawdown of troops would be "limited".
Mr Gates said that considerable number of US troops would remain in the country as he claimed that a major headway in the war against Taliban and Al Qaida was underway.
The US secretary said that the Taliban insurgence would not be able to wait out American forces as any major pullout was not on the horizon. "My personal opinion is that drawdowns early on will be fairly of limited numbers," he said.
Asked if Taliban has simply to "run out the clock until mid 2011," Mr Gates said he would "welcome that because we will be there in the 19th month, and we will be there with lot of troops."
Mr Gates' comments echoed remarks by Vice President Joe Biden who has said as few as 2,000 American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by July 2011.
