IHT : U.S. military options draw a chorus of protests in Pakistan

U.S. military options draw a chorus of protests in Pakistan

By Salman Masood | July 23, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: American assertions that military action remained an option to quell militants in Pakistan's frontier regions drew mounting protests from the government and its critics here on Monday, as clashes continued in the tribal areas where the United States says Al Qaeda has been allowed to set up a safe haven.

The Pakistani military said Monday that its gun battles in North Waziristan had killed 35 militants since the day before, though reporters and residents in the tribal town of Miramshah expressed doubts about the military's claim. The military spokesman, Major General Waheed Arshad, said two soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded in fighting since Sunday night.

Fresh fighting erupted a little over a week ago in the tribal areas, when the Taliban renounced a truce in the aftermath of a government raid on a radical pro-Taliban mosque here in the capital. The government of the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, has tried to stitch up the truce since then. The militants demand that troops pull out of posts in the tribal areas.

The Bush administration has recently stepped up its criticism of the peace deal with the militants, using it to press its longtime ally, Musharraf, into taking more forceful action against what it calls sanctuaries of Qaeda fighters and their helpers.

The administration's homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, said Sunday in an interview with Fox Television that the United States would consider military strikes against Qaeda hide-outs in Pakistan.

The statement was promptly countered by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, on Monday. "We do not want our efforts to be undermined by any ill-conceived action," Aslam said, adding that any military strikes would be deeply resented in the tribal areas and the rest of the country.

She said Pakistan was not aware of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

Newspaper editorials over the past several days have pointedly criticized American suggestions of military action, taking note of American troops getting "bogged down" in Iraq and Afghanistan. "So in their own interest and in the interest of Pakistan's battle with the Taliban," read an editorial recently in Dawn, an English language daily newspaper, the Americans "better keep themselves out of it."

In Washington, the White House tried to temper such concerns, saying that reserving the option of military force was not necessarily the same as exercising it.

"I think there has been this notion afoot, or at least an attempt or an inclination somehow, we're going to invade Pakistan," said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman. "We always maintain the option of striking actionable targets, but we also realize that Pakistan is a sovereign government and a very important player in the war on terror."

Ismail Khan contributed reporting from Peshawar, Pakistan.