New Delhi: The US will strike al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if it has actionable intelligence, said US Vice-President Joe Biden to CBS News in an interview on Monday.
CBS quoted Biden as saying, “The President of the United States said during his campaign and in the debates that if there is an actionable intelligence against high-level al-Qaeda personnel, that he would not hesitate to use action to deal with that.”
Biden refused to specify whether Islamabad would be informed before a strike or whether the operation would involve both air and ground forces.
His remarks come just three days after a US missile strike in North and South Waziristan that killed 21 people, including al-Qaeda cadres and some civilians. Pakistan registered its protest with no less than President Asif Ali Zardari.
“The new administration, which has taken over in America, has a different way of thinking. They will certainly hold a dialogue with us. Whenever we had a dialogue with them, we said to them to stop these drones. If it (drone) kills three criminals, it kills 10 people (civilians) which is unjustified,” Zardari said.
But Islamabad is known to quietly endorse the missile strikes in return for cash and political support from Washington.
However, in response to the growing anger in the tribal areas over civilian casualties, Pakistan has registered its protest with the US.
There have been more than 30 missile strikes largely carried out by unmanned US Air Force aircraft since last August, and more are expected as Obama has said that US forces will act against militants along the border if Pakistan failed to do so.
Comments
0 comment