ISLAMBAD – For a week, the US has been saying that it is “looking into” and”following closely” the reports of use of F-16 and has taken up the issuewith Pakistan.

A top State Department official on Wednesday said the US is “very closely”following the reports which have claimed that Pakistan misusedAmerican-made F-16 fighter jets against India.

“We’ve seen those reports and we’re following that issue very closely,” USState Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters at hisbiweekly news conference on Tuesday.

“I can’t confirm anything, but as a matter of policy, we don’t publiclycomment on the contents of bilateral agreements that we have in this regardinvolving US defence technologies nor the communications that we have withother countries about that.

So, we’re taking a look and we’re going to continue to take a look. I’mgoing to leave it at that,” Palladino said.The US State Department has saidthat it is seeking more information from Pakistan on the potential misuseof American-made F-16 fighter jets by it against India in violation of theend-user agreement.

However, diplomatic sources in Pakistan told that the US is yet to seekdetails of alleged misuse of F-16 jets in combat with India from Pakistanagainst India in the recent aerial confrontation between the air forces ofthe two countries.