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US: Bin Laden in Pakistan
07/05/2006 14:41 - (SA)
Kabul - Parts of Pakistan are a "safe haven" for militants and the country is the likely hiding place of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a top US counterterrorism official said during a visit to Afghanistan, in remarks that drew a sharp response from Islamabad.
Henry Crumpton, the US ambassador in charge of counterterrorism, on Saturday lauded Pakistan for arresting "hundreds and hundreds" of al-Qaeda figures but said the country needed to do more.
"Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is no. I have conveyed that to them, other US officials have conveyed that to them," Crumpton told reporters at the US Embassy in Kabul after talks with Afghan officials.
The chief spokesman for Pakistan's army, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, dismissed Crumpton's assertion that Pakistan was not doing enough.
"It is totally absurd," he said. "No one has conveyed this thing to Pakistan, and if someone claims so, it is absurd."
Crumpton praised Pakistan's capture Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, a top al-Qaeda strategist with a US$5 million bounty on his head, in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November.
Pakistan has also launched repeated counterterrorism operations in its lawless tribal regions close to the Afghan border over the past two years, in which hundreds of militants and soldiers have died.
"Our expectation is that they will continue to make progress, and we know that it's difficult," he said. Pakistan "can't remain a safe haven for enemy forces, and right now parts of Pakistan are indeed that."
Crumpton said US officials continue to believe that bin Laden is somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistani border, adding that there was a "higher probability" bin Laden was on the Pakistani side than the Afghan one.
"If we knew exactly where bin Laden was, we'd go get him," Crumpton said. "But we're very confident he's along the Pakistan-Afghan border somewhere," he said.
A senior security official in Islamabad said that Crumpton, during meetings with Pakistani intelligence and government officials this week, praised Pakistan for its efforts to hunt down militants.
"I am surprised that he praised us here, and is saying something else in Kabul," the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
US troops have been in Afghanistan since US-led forces ousted the former Taliban regime in late 2001 for harbouring bin Laden. Most of the troops are engaged in operations to root out militants in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
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