US 'must combat Pakistan safe havens'

The US military has conceded it is not winning the fight in Afghanistan and will revise its strategy in Pakistan.

US soldiers in Afghanistan during a moment of silence at a ceremony marking the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

WASHINGTON // The US military conceded it was not winning the fight against an increasingly deadly insurgency in Afghanistan yesterday and said it would revise its strategy to combat militant safe havens in Pakistan. Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that success in Afghanistan would require more civilian effort beyond the military fight.

"Frankly, we're running out of time," Mr Mullen said. "I'm not convinced we are winning it in Afghanistan. I am convinced we can," he said, offering a sober assessment nearly seven years since US-led forces toppled the Taliban after the September 11 attacks. Violence in Afghanistan has soared over two years as al Qa'eda and Taliban fighters have regrouped in the remote region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the Bush administration has said it would send more troops, some critics say the plan is inadequate and any strategy must also focus on Pakistan's side of the border, where US officials say Osama bin Laden is likely to be hiding. Mr Mullen said he was "looking at a new, more comprehensive strategy for the region" that would cover both sides of the border, including Pakistan's tribal areas. "These two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them," Mr Mullen said.

"We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan, but until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming." Without directly referring to Mr Mullen, the Pakistani Army chief general Ashfaq Kayani delivered a clear message that foreign forces would not be tolerated on Pakistani soil.

"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan," a military statement quoted Mr Kayani as saying. The United States has stepped up attacks against militant targets inside Pakistan this year with a series of missile strikes from unmanned drones and a raid by helicopter-borne US commandos in recent days.

The attacks have sparked an outcry from Pakistani leaders and may have complicated the challenges facing the newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. US commanders in Afghanistan have requested three more combat brigades, or about 10,000 more soldiers, to help cope with insurgent activity. Some 33,000 US troops are already there, including 14,000 who are part of a 53,000-strong Nato military command. * Reuters