US strikes necessary as Pak forces lack capacity to combat Taliban, Qaeda

Washington, Sept 15 (ANI): The ongoing US' military strikes targeting the Taliban and Al Qaeda were "risky" but must continue, as over the past six years the Bush administration's reliance on Pakistan to combat the militants only "strengthened the Taliban and Al Qaeda networks in FATA", said an editorial in the Washington Post.

It said that the Pakistan forces alone lacked the capacity to eliminate the extremists.

According to it, the US strikes in Pakistan were necessary and were long overdue. "They must continue," it added.

The paper added that the US' attacking policy also led to a steady increase in Taliban assaults on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, while US intelligence community believed that Al Qaeda was using its bases to prepare for new attacks on Western targets, including the US.

"By now it is clear that Pakistani army and security forces lack the capacity to defeat the extremists - and may even support some of the Taliban commanders," the paper claimed.

"Pakistan's army has arranged truces with some of the extremists that don't preclude them from fighting in Afghanistan," added the paper. (ANI)