US to cooperate with Pak in fighting 'extremism'

Washington, July 10: The United States has 'real interest' in working with Pakistan in fighting violent extremism there, says State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Replying to a question yesterday, ''We believe that Pakistan is a good ally, a good friend in fighting terror. They have an issue there with violent extremism. It's an issue that affects the Pakistani people as well as others in the region as well as the United States.'' ''So we have a real interest in working with them in terms of fighting violent extremism. But with respect to any particular military or intelligence operations, that's not something that I would comment on,'' the spokesman said.

He, however declined to comment on a New York Times story which said that ''a secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas was aborted at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky.'' Mr McCormack said, ''I'm not going to get into operational details of our working relationship with the Pakistani Government in fighting terrorism, but let's also remember Pakistan is a sovereign country and has a sovereign government that's responsible for law and order within their borders.''

UNI

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