US criticizes Pak's double tone on drone strikes

Washington, May 16 (ANI) : A key US lawmaker has criticized Pakistan for maintaining a double faced commitment over the US drone strikes inside its geographical territory with condemning the attacks publicly and approving them privately.

Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin said Pakistan must publicly admit that it supports the drone strikes being carried out against the Taliban and other extremists in the lawless tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

"I wish they'd tell their public about their support of our operations instead of attacking us for them, because that is one of the things that just creates propaganda fodder for the very people who are out to destroy us and them," The Nation quoted Levin, as saying.

Levin's statement came in response to Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen's remarks that Pakistan not only approved the drone attacks, it also has an arrangement with the United States that allowed Islamabad to receive data collected by the unmanned Predator aircraft.

"In terms of support and information, they have asked for that, and where they've asked for that, we've supported them," Admiral Mullen informed the committee.

In the recent past, Pakistan has publicly criticized the missile attacks by CIA drones on Taliban and Al Qaeda's hideouts in the tribal region terming the strikes as "counterproductive".

Islamabad has also been pressing Washington to provide it the drones to conduct its own operation against the extremists. (ANI)