No plans to send combat troops to Pak to hit terror havens: US

Washington, July 31(ANI): The Unites States has brushed aside Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's suggestion of a NATO operation inside Pakistan to strike at Taliban safe havens in the country.

"We have no plans to send US combat forces to Pakistan," The Daily Times quoted P.J. Crowley, U.S. State Department spokesman, as saying.

Crowley also said that the Obama administration was working with the Pakistan government to eliminate the safe havens.

"You have the United States and the international community working with Afghanistan on one side of the border, and you do have Pakistan taking aggressive action on the other side of the border. And our message to Pakistan is that the offensive needs to continue," he added.

Earlier, on Thursday, Karzai had urged his Western allies to destroy "militant sanctuaries" in Pakistan.

"The time has come for our international allies to know that the war against terrorism is not in Afghanistan's homes and villages, but rather this war is in the sanctuaries, funding centres and training places of terrorism which are outside Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"Whether we are able to destroy these sanctuaries or not is another question. We will try what we can. Our international allies have this ability, but the question is why they are not doing it," he added.

The Afghan government has long claimed that Pakistan is playing a double game, supplying a vital land route for NATO equipment into Afghanistan while tolerating the Taliban in and around the city of Quetta.

Afghan security officials have also frequently accused Pakistan's spies in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of involvement in attacks inside Afghanistan. (ANI)