Washington: Al Qaeda still has the capacity to launch international attacks from Pakistan despite killing of the extremist network’s leader Osama bin Laden, a US official said Friday.
State Department official Shari Villarosa renewed calls on Pakistan to take action against extremists, particularly in lawless northwestern areas that were considered safe havens for militants.
“Although the AQ (al Qaeda) core is clearly weaker, it retains the capability to conduct regional and transnational attacks” from Pakistan, Villarosa said in written statement to the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Villarosa, the deputy counterterrorism coordinator in charge of regional affairs, pointed out to the al Qaeda links of the Pakistan-based militant groups Tehreek-e-Taliban and the Haqqani network.
“We will do our part and we look to the government of Pakistan to take decisive steps in the days ahead,” Villarosa said. “Joint action against AQ and its associates will make Pakistan, America and the world safer and more secure.”
The US official also called for action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The group is blamed for the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai, India.
Villarosa have increasingly questioned the relationship with Pakistan, which has received some $18 billion since allying itself with Washington in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Michael McCaul, a Republican leader from Texas who chaired the hearing, voiced alarm that bin Laden “lived comfortably in Abbottabad,” home to Pakistan’s top military academy.
“He was not hiding in a cave, he was not in the mountains. His compound was less than one mile, or about half the distance from here to the Washington Monument, from the Pakistan military academy,” McCaul said on Capitol Hill.
“At this point we do not know who in the Pakistani government was aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence, but I am certain that some Pakistan officials knew that he was living in plain sight,” he said.
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