US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Monday said that Pakistan Army had indicated that it planned to begin combat operations soon in a tribal area near the Afghan border that is a haven for al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, a foreign news agency claimed.
According to the newswire, Panetta, in his Pentagon office, Monday, said that Pakistan’s military, chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, had given word of a planned operation in recent conversations with the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen.
Panetta said he did not know when the Pakistani operation would start, but he said he understands it will be in the “near future,” and that the main target will be the Pakistani Taliban, rather than the Haqqani network, the agency added.
Haqqani leaders fled to Pakistan’s North Waziristan region from their homeland in eastern Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Asian Defence News
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