Gen. Petraeus commends Pakistani-US coordination

Associated Press

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said there will be more coordinated military operations on either side of the border with Pakistan, and commended the Pakistanis on its “impressive” counterinsurgency efforts.

The Taliban in Afghanistan and other extremist groups use safe havens across the border in Pakistan, and the U.S. has been pushing Islamabad to clear the lawless tribal belt that runs along the frontier. The pressure has often strained U.S.-Pakistani relations, with Islamabad bristling at suggestions it should do more.

Gen. David Petraeus, who took over command of coalition troops in Afghanistan in July, told The Associated Press there had already been coordinated operations on both sides of the border.

“We want to do more hammer and anvil operations,” Petraeus said late Saturday, in an interview aboard a military transport aircraft as he flew around Afghanistan on Christmas visits.

Pakistan recognized “the need to do more to solidify their gains in (Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas), and we are going to coordinate with them to help their operations,” he said.

But the general insisted that Pakistan’s efforts at combating the various militant groups active in the country must be commended.

“We have to be very clear in recognizing what Pakistan has done over the course of the last 22 months, which is quite considerable. They’ve conducted impressive counterinsurgency operations” in several regions, including the Swat Valley, the North West Frontier Province and the tribal regions, Petraeus said.

In the latest militant strike against the Pakistani authorities’ control over a key northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan, a female suicide bomber killed 45 people and wounded scores more outside a World Food Program depot on Saturday.

Petraeus insisted that gains already made must be solidified before Pakistan expands its operations to other areas — such as troubled North Waziristan.

“They recognize the need to finish some of the operations they’ve already conducted before launching significant new ones,” the general said, sitting at the desk of an office set up inside the military plane, laptops keeping him connected to operations across the country.

The Pakistani military has stepped up operations against Islamic extremist groups it considers a threat to its own security — notably the Pakistani Taliban.