ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that talk of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida in Pakistan only hurts the fight against terrorism, and his troops bombarded militant hideouts in their strongest response yet to a month of antigovernment attacks. Ten suspected militants were killed.
The assault by artillery and helicopter gunships “knocked out” two compounds in Daygan village in the tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan that were being used as staging posts for attacks on security forces, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the army’s top spokesman.
Ten militants were killed, he said.
Musharraf told visiting Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that comments by senior U.S. officials and presidential hopefuls about the possibility of unilateral U.S. strikes within the country were not helpful.
“He emphasized that only Pakistan’s security forces, which were fully capable of dealing with any situation, would take counterterrorism action inside Pakistani territory,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The president pointed out that certain recent U.S. statements were counterproductive to the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries in combating the threat of terrorism,” the ministry said.
President Bush said Monday that America and Pakistan, if armed with good intelligence, could track and kill al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. He stopped short of saying whether he would ask Musharraf before dispatching U.S. troops to the country.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a presidential candidate, has said that he would use military force in Pakistan if necessary to root out terrorists, prompting angry responses from Pakistani officials.
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