DAWN, Karachi, Pakistan 03 February 2005 Thursday 23 Zilhaj 1425
Pakistan rejects US military claim
ISLAMABAD, Feb 2 (AFP): Pakistan on Wednesday rejected a US military claim that its forces were helping American troops in Afghanistan to aim artillery fire at rebels on the Pakistani side of the border.
"Not at all, it is baseless, it has got no truth," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP in response to remarks by Colonel Cardon Crawford, director of operations for the US military command in Afghanistan.
Maj-Gen Sultan said Pakistani forces were cooperating with US-led coalition troops who are on the other side of the porous frontier but "it is a cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing." "It is not in terms of inviting their (coalition) fire onto our territory," Maj-Gen Sultan said. -AFP =============================================================================================== REUTERS Filed at 10:56 a.m. ET
Al Qaeda Still in Pakistan, Work Needed, U.S. Says
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Elements of al Qaeda remain in Pakistan, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday, adding that unless more was done to stop the flow of recruits into militant groups the war on terror would never be won.
U.S. Undersecretary for Defense Douglas Feith, in Pakistan for talks on security and defense issues, said disrupting and destroying person networks was not enough.
``We also have to address the flow of people into the ranks of the persons organizations,'' he told a news conference after talks with Pakistani defense officials in the garrison city of Rawalpindi adjoining Islamabad.
``If we don't stop that flow of people into the ranks of person groups, then we are never going to win the war.''
Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, has arrested more than 500 al Qaeda and Taliban officials and handed them over to the United States.
But hundreds of al-Qaeda militants are still hiding in Pakistan's mountains bordering Afghanistan and in major cities. ..... ===============================================================================================
