the australian.com
Pakistan told to banish all safe havens by Hillary Clinton
From:AFP
October 29, 2011 12:00AM
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PAKISTANI forces are allowing insurgents to launch rocket and mortar attacks on US troops across the Afghanistan border an American general said yesterday, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan to close safe havens for militants.
Rocket fire often originated within sight of border posts manned by Pakistan's Frontier Corps, the general said.
Pakistan, Mrs Clinton said while giving evidence before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, must be "unequivocal" in aiding the US by targeting the Haqqani-led militant network that was leading many of the attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
She said she had been "frank" in delivering that message to Pakistan on her visit there last week.
As the Secretary of State spoke, a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bombing, also in Kandahar - the Taliban's traditional stronghold - raising to 480 the number of coalition forces killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
The killing came hours after a Taliban attack on a US base in Kandahar that killed two people.
The deputy US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, said in Washington yesterday that there was little doubt Pakistani forces were complicit in the attacks on NATO forces.
"In some locations from time to time you will see what just appears to us to be a collaboration . . . or at a minimum a looking the other way when insurgents conducted rocket or mortar fire in what we believe to be (within) visual sight of one of their (Pakistan military) posts," he said.
The cross-border attacks had increased dramatically in eastern Paktika province in recent months, with rocket and other fire four times higher than in previous years.
"We talk very bluntly with our Pakistani counterparts about this," he said.
The rocket fire has coincided with a virtual breakdown in communications between US and Pakistani military officers along the border since May, when American special operations forces killed al-Qa'ida chief Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan compound in a unilateral raid that angered Islamabad.....Additional reporting: AP
October 29, 2011 12:00AM
======================================================
PAKISTANI forces are allowing insurgents to launch rocket and mortar attacks on US troops across the Afghanistan border an American general said yesterday, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Pakistan to close safe havens for militants.
Rocket fire often originated within sight of border posts manned by Pakistan's Frontier Corps, the general said.
Pakistan, Mrs Clinton said while giving evidence before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, must be "unequivocal" in aiding the US by targeting the Haqqani-led militant network that was leading many of the attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
She said she had been "frank" in delivering that message to Pakistan on her visit there last week.
As the Secretary of State spoke, a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bombing, also in Kandahar - the Taliban's traditional stronghold - raising to 480 the number of coalition forces killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
The killing came hours after a Taliban attack on a US base in Kandahar that killed two people.
The deputy US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, said in Washington yesterday that there was little doubt Pakistani forces were complicit in the attacks on NATO forces.
"In some locations from time to time you will see what just appears to us to be a collaboration . . . or at a minimum a looking the other way when insurgents conducted rocket or mortar fire in what we believe to be (within) visual sight of one of their (Pakistan military) posts," he said.
The cross-border attacks had increased dramatically in eastern Paktika province in recent months, with rocket and other fire four times higher than in previous years.
"We talk very bluntly with our Pakistani counterparts about this," he said.
The rocket fire has coincided with a virtual breakdown in communications between US and Pakistani military officers along the border since May, when American special operations forces killed al-Qa'ida chief Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan compound in a unilateral raid that angered Islamabad.....Additional reporting: AP
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