US denies carrying out joint drone operations in Pakistan

London, May 14 (ANI): A day after media reports claimed Pakistan has allowed US drones to fly inside its geographical territory to carry out strikes against the Taliban and other extremist groups, US defence officials have refuted the accounts.

Terming the Los Angeles Times report as 'grossly inaccurate', a senior defense official at Central Command said the idea of the U.S. Military openly operating in that area would be a drastic change in policy, Fox News reports.

Pakistan military officials are working with their American counterparts at a command center in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, the paper reported

"This is about building trust. This is about giving them capabilities they do not currently have to help them defeat this radical extreme element that is in their country," the newspaper had quoted a senior U.S. military official, as saying.

"The program marks a significant departure from how the war against Taliban insurgents has been fought for most of the last seven years," it added.

The report had also quoted some US officials describing the new joint operation as an 'effective compromise.'

Pakistan, which has been denying reports about Islamabad allowing the drones to fly from air-base within the country to carry out attacks in the lawless tribal region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, also did not deny that the joint program is now in place. (ANI)