'Frustrated' America mulls secret joint US-Afghan raids in Pakistan to hunt militants

Islamabad, June 23 (ANI): Frustrated with Islamabad's failure to stop militant groups from attacking US troops in neighboring Afghanistan, American officials are considering to launch secret joint U.S.-Afghan commando raids into Pakistan to hunt terrorists.

The idea, which US officials say comes up every couple of months, has been consistently rejected because the White House believes the chance of successfully rooting out the deadly Haqqani network would not be worth the intense diplomatic blowback from Pakistan.

The latest round of debate over whether to launch clandestine special operations raids into Pakistan against the Haqqanis came after the June 1 car bombing of Forward Operating Base Salerno in eastern Afghanistan that injured up to 100 US and Afghan soldiers.

The Daily Times quoted US officials, as saying that that recent discussions of clandestine ground attacks have included General John Allen, the senior US commander in Afghanistan, as well as top CIA and special operations officials.

The US relationship with Pakistan is arguably at its lowest point as Islamabad has done little in response to repeated US requests for a crackdown on the Haqqanis.

Pakistan's army has attacked terrorist strongholds across the tribal areas, except for North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis hold sway and shelter both al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.

Pakistani officials say that they intend to hit North Waziristan, but that their army is too overstretched to move as fast as the US demands. (ANI)