Washington: In a blunt warning, United States of America has threatened to take "unilateral action" by sending its troops to Pakistan to shut down Taliban and other terrorist camps there, if Islamabad does not take decisive action against them.
The Americans want the Pakistanis to target Haqqani network based in north Waziristan and Taliban supremo Mullah Omar and the members of the groups top Shura, believed to be hiding in Baluchistan.
Washington feels that Pakistani forces have so far refused to attack against these two Taliban groups, The New York Times reported quoting American and Pakistani officials.
The Times said, "The US was prepared to take unilateral action to expand Predator drone attacks beyond the tribal areas and, if needed, to resume raids by Special Operations forces into the country against al Qaeda and Taliban leaders".
"The blunt message was delivered in a tense encounter in Pakistan last month, before President Barack Obama announced his new war strategy when General James Jones, Obama's National Security Adviser, and John O Brennan, the White House counter terrorism chief, met with the heads of Pakistan's military and its intelligence service," the paper said.
US officials said the message did not amount to an ultimatum but rather it was intended to "prod a reluctant Pakistani military" to go after Taliban insurgents in Pakistan who are directing attacks in Afghanistan.
A senior administration official, asked about the encounter, declined to go into details but added quickly, "I think they read our intentions accurately."
A Pakistani official who has been briefed on the meetings said, "Jones's message was if Pakistani help wasn't forthcoming, the United States would have to do it themselves."
American commanders said earlier this year that they were considering expanding drone strikes in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, but General Jones's comments marked the first time that the US bluntly told Pakistan it would have to choose between leading attacks against the insurgents inside the country's borders or stepping aside to let the Americans do it.
The implicit threat of not only ratcheting up the drone strikes but also launching more covert American ground raids would mark a substantial escalation of the administration's counterterrorism campaign, New York Times said.
American Special Operations forces attacked al Qaeda terrorists in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan in early September 2008, in the first publicly acknowledged case of US forces conducting a ground raid on Pakistani soil.
