Bush administration rebuffs request for wider attacks inside Pakistan: report

WASHINGTON: Bush administration rebuffed a proposal of U.S. commanders in Afghanistan who had recently urged expanding the war effort, possibly including U.S. attacks on militants inside Pakistan's tribal areas, an American newspaper reported in its Sunday editions. Citing U.S. officials, the paper reported the requests had been rebuffed for now following internal Bush administration deliberations in which U.S. officials expressed fears that attacks could foment anger within Pakistan’s new government, which has been negotiating with the militants, and destabilize security there. One Bush administration official said the Washington discussions involved President George W. Bush's top national security aides and took place earlier this year. White House and State Department spokesmen declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the U.S. ambassador in Pakistan, Anne Patterson, the newspaper said. Officials said the U.S. proposals included possible limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan, missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small teams of CIA paramilitary forces or Special Operations forces, according to the report. The newspaper reported that U.S. commanders preferred that Pakistani forces conduct such attacks, but that Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas had declined as negotiations with the militants played out. U.S. officials in Afghanistan urging attacks in Pakistan had discussed possible targets with Patterson, the paper said. The report claimed that while Pakistan had given the CIA limited authority to kill Arab and other foreign operatives in tribal regions.U.S. officials said they had not ruled out striking Pakistani militants in the tribal areas, the report said.