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Pakistan reluctant to hit Taliban leaders: Patterson

* Islamabad’s refusal to act in support of US goals undermining efforts against Al Qaeda

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Despite growing US military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan is not targeting the groups on its soil that threaten the American-led mission there, the US ambassador to Pakistan has said.

Eight years after Pakistan agreed to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Ambassador Anne Patterson told the McClatchy Interviewer, Pakistan had “different priorities” from the US. It was “certainly reluctant to take action” against the leaders of the Afghan insurgency, she said.

She said Pakistan’s refusal to act in support of American goals was undermining the US effort to deny Al Qaeda and other extremist groups a sanctuary in Afghanistan.

“Where we differ, of course, is the treatment of the groups who are attacking our troops in Afghanistan. And that comes down to Haqqani and Gul Bahadur and Nazir, to a lesser extent Hekmatyar, and yes, of course, there are differences there,” Patterson told the newspaper. “My own view is that the Haqqani group is the biggest threat [in Afghanistan]. The Quetta Shura, yes, is sort of a command and control. They move in and out of Afghanistan,” she told McClatchy.

Nevertheless, Patterson said that Pakistan had “taken more action against some of these groups than most people are aware of.”

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