WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the U.S. remains focused on working with Pakistan to track down militants along its border with Afghanistan.
The comments come in response to an Associated Press report that the U.S. frustration with Pakistani inaction has prompted military and intelligence officials to consider launching secret commando raids into Pakistan to hunt down militants.
U.S. officials tell the AP that the idea comes up every time the Haqqani (hah-KAH'-nee) network launches an attack in Afghanistan. The Taliban faction plans and trains in Pakistan's northwest tribal region along the border.
Pentagon spokesman George Little points to today's attack on a lakeside hotel outside Kabul, which killed 18 people, as the latest example of a Haqqani attack targeting Afghan civilians. But he says the key to stopping such attacks remains cooperation with Pakistan.
A spokesman for the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says Gen. John Allen "does not intend to push for a cross-border operation."
Officials say the White House has rejected the idea of clandestine ground attacks because the diplomatic cost to U.S.-Pakistan relations would be too high.
