Kabul, Jan 03: The US military said today it reserved the right to cross from Afghanistan into neighbouring Pakistan in pursuit of fugitive Taliban or al Qaeda militants.
The military said this was a long-standing policy which had the express consent of the government of Pakistan, although it has never been acknowledged publicly before and the government in Islamabad
denied any formal agreement to allow US troops to cross into Pakistan.
''It has been a long-standing policy that if we are pursuing enemy forces, we are not just going to tiptoe and stop right when we get to the border,'' said US Military spokesman Major Stephen Clutter at Bagram Air Base.
''We do reserve the right to go after them and pursue them and that is something Pakistan is aware of.''
The question of US troops operating inside Pakistan is a sensitive one for the government in Islamabad, particularly after hardline Islamic groups registered large electoral gains in October on the back of their opposition to Pakistan's support for US military action in the region.
In an e-mail sent to Reuters today in response to a question, the US military said it had the ''express consent of the Pakistani government'' to pursue attackers who escaped capture in Afghanistan and fled across the border into Pakistan.
But Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told Reuters there was no blanket acceptance of such action.
Bureau Report
