No terror threat from Afghanistan, but from Pak: US official

Washington, Jun 23 (PTI) The US is not facing any
significant terror threat from Afghanistan, but such dangers
are now emanating from neighbouring Pakistan, a senior
American official said.
"We haven't seen a terrorist threat emanating from
Afghanistan for the past seven or eight years," the Obama
administration official said on condition of anonymity.
There has been fighting and threats inside Afghanistan,
but "the assessment is that they number anywhere between 50,
75 or so al-Qaeda types, that are embedded in the Haqqani
network, doing basically tactical fighting units inside of
Afghanistan."
The official said the terrorists are focused inside
Afghanistan and there is "no indication at all" that there is
any effort within Afghanistan to the country as a launching
pad to carry out attacks outside of borders.
"The threat has come from Pakistan over the past
half-dozen years or so, and longer.
"And what we've been able to do, particularly over the
last year, but through the course of the last two-and-a-half
years of this administration, is to degrade al-Qaeda core's
capabilities significantly," he said.
The official said the US forces have wiped off several
key terror leaders and succeeded weakening al-Qaeda.
"We've taken out of commission a number of operatives
that were in the pipeline to carry out attacks outside of
Pakistan."
The official said: "We have taken a significant number of
key senior leaders off of the battlefield. In addition to
(Osama) bin Laden, there are individuals like Saeed al-Masri
and others who had been critical to al-Qaeda's operational and
organisational capabilities over the last dozen years."
The official said they have degraded al-Qaeda's ability
to conduct training in the FATA and Waziristan area.
"We've taken off of the battlefield also explosive
experts and different commanders who were in charge of
different units that are designed to carry out terrorist
attacks abroad."
The Obama administration official said: "This degradation
of al-Qaeda's capabilities has also been accompanied by a very
unsafe environment within Waziristan. It's not been a safe
haven for quite a while."
This has also slowed significantly the flow of recruits
into Afghanistan, he said.
"A number of al-Qaeda types have been looking for other
areas because they have said that they have not been able to
carry out their activities in the area," he said.
"(We are) Working with the Pakistanis whenever we can,
but also working on our own... we have been able to put in
place the framework that includes sources from a technical and
human standpoint, as well as an architecture that we can
prosecute our efforts with our Pakistani partners when we're
able.
"(US wants to) make sure that we're able to use the
intelligence that we've been able to gain in that area, and to
prosecute the efforts to take off of the battlefield
significant numbers of al-Qaeda and associated militant
types," the official said.
He said although there has been a lot of media attention
on the Pakistani push-back on certain programmes, but the
truth is that a number of individuals within the Pakistani
counter-terrorism environment see that US' capabilities are
not just impressive, but also needed as a way to degrade the
capabilities of al-Qaeda. PTI LKJ
KAP