United States says that war effort in Afghanistan will continue in tandem with NATO

Pakistan promptly sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supplies after allied strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border on Saturday. “The war effort continues,” press secretary George Little told reporters.

Asked how long U.S and coalition forces could operate without supplies from routes running through Pakistan, he said: “I don’t have a time line to share. But the important point to focus on is the war effort will continue. Everyone
realizes we have an enemy to engage in Afghanistan and the US military is prepared to carry on.” Nearly half of all cargo bound for Nato-led troops runs through Pakistan.

Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 American forces, rely on supplies from the outside for the war in Afghanistan. But the United States also depends on Islamabad’s tacit cooperation to wage war against al Qaeda
and Taliban militants inside Pakistan, with the CIA carrying out an intense campaign of air strikes using unmanned drone aircraft.

“The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has asked US Central Command to lead an investigation into the air strikes”, Little said. The American military’s Central Command oversees US forces in the Middle
East and Afghanistan.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) sent an initial assessment team over the weekend to the border to collect facts surrounding the incident, he said. Both Allen and the military’s top-ranking officer, General
Martin Dempsey, spoke to the Pakistani army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, about the incident, he said.

“Obviously they did express their condolences and regrets but I think everyone realizes the facts need to be collected, analyzed and that the investigation needs to unfold,” he said. The Pentagon spokesman also said he could not
confirm reports that Pakistan had banned US government aircraft or ordered the CIA out of the Shamsi air base, which has reportedly been used for US drone strikes against militants.

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Posted by Hamza Jahangir on Nov 28 2011. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry