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US rejects Karzai demand to strike Pak safe havens

Source:PTI
July 30, 2010 09:54 IST

Dismissing Afghanistan's demand to strike at terror sanctuaries across the border, US has said that it has no plans to send combat troops to Pakistan.

At a news conference in Kabul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had urged the international community, the US in particular, to strike safe heavens inside Pakistan.

"The international community is here to fight the menace of terrorism, but there is danger elsewhere and they are not acting," he said.

However, the Obama Administration expressed satisfaction on Thursday over the aggressive stand taken by the Pakistani Army against terrorist outfits in tribal regions of the country.

"We have no plans to send US combat forces to Pakistan," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said at his daily news briefing when asked about the statement made by the Afghan president.

"We are working with Pakistan to eliminate the safe havens which are a threat to Pakistan and a threat to Afghanistan and a threat to the US," he said.

"It is central to the strategy that the president unveiled last December and it's central to the fact that we need effective action on both sides of the border," he said.

"You have the United States and the international community working with Afghanistan on one side of the border, and you do have Pakistan taking aggressive action on the other side of the border.

Our message to Pakistan is that that offensive, if you will, needs to continue," Crowley said.

"We rely on the kind of effective action by the Pakistani military that we've seen in Swat, we've seen in South Waziristan, and we want to see continue," he said.
Source: PTI
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