Islamabad, July 25: Describing Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt near Afghanistan as the “global headquarters” of al-Qaeda, top American military commander Mike Mullen has said the US believed that the terror network’s chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy Aiman al-Zawahiri are in this country.
The presence of these terrorist leaders in the region is a reason why “a principal part of the overall Af-Pak strategy is focussed on elimination of safe havens” for them, Mullen told reporters here last night.
His comments came days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruffled feathers in Islamabad by making a similar statement.
During her recent visit here, Clinton had also said that bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders are in Pakistan, an assertion dismissed by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as “speculation”.
–Agencies