Pajhwok
07/28/2010
By Muhammad Jawad Sharifzada
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KABUL - A senior US military official said on Sunday that top al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri, were hiding in Pakistan.

The Obama administration was seeking cooperation from the Pakistani government in disrupting, dismantling and defeating the terrorist network, the US joints chief of staff said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, who flew into Kabul from Islamabad, told journalists he had raised with the Pakistani authorities the issue of the al-Qaeda leaders' presence in that country.

The admiral added they had been working together with the Pakistani military to "find, capture and kill them." He hoped the ISI and political leaders of Pakistan would cooperate with the US in this regard.

Mullen also praised Islamabad's role in their fight against terrorism, acknowledging the nuclear-capable South Asian country had "captured and killed more terrorists than any other country in the world."

He billed the current year as "a big challenge" in the war on terrorism, but was optimistic they would be the eventual winners.

Mullen expressed his optimism, though June was the deadliest month for international troops in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban regime 2001.

More than 100 foreign soldiers, mostly Americans and Britons, were killed last month in the conflict-torn country, where the Taliban-led insurgency has been on the rise.

He said Afghanistan and Pakistan had sacrificed a lot in the campaign against terrorism but much more was needed to be done to eliminate the scourge.

In response to a query, he said: "On July 11, 2011, we will begin a process of transition to Afghan security forces." The US troop withdrawal would depend on conditions on the ground, he explained. "America would remain in Afghanistan in and after July 2011."

With regard to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, the joints chief of staff admitted there was no clear winner at the moment. However, the International Security Assistance Force was making slow but steady progress, he believed.

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