WASHINGTON – There is no plan for US forces in Afghanistan to cross theinternational border in chasing the Taliban other terrorist groupsconducting attacks inside Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“To be clear, US military authorities are within the borders of Afghanistanonly. We have no authority to go into Pakistanlink>. If there is a way to get thatauthority, but that would certainly be the exception and not the norm,” aspokesperson for the Department of Defense said.
Lt. Col. Mike Andrews told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Say, for example, we havetroops in contact and then the Taliban forces go across the border. Theyare clearly inside Pakistan then. There’s no change with regards torespecting the territorial sovereignty of Pakistan.”
He reiterated they would not be going into Pakistan — there could beexceptions to that. It was not going to be normal day-to-day operationalrules of engagement that US commanders on the ground knew, the spokespersonadded.
“If the Taliban reside in Pakistan and we are able to provide safety andsupport and to help secure districts and provinces within Afghanistan, Ithink that is a tradeoff that we’re willing to make. Because it’s notnecessarily about these people over in Pakistan, it is about the Afghanpeople,” Andrews said.
Getting back the provinces that the Taliban claimed or contested would bethe focus of the Afghan forces this year, he said, adding there was enoughwork to be done inside Afghanistan to reduce their influence and to providemore security and stability to Afghans.
“And what happens in Pakistan, we can’t have any control on that. Icertainly think that in the east, in the southeast, we have more, whetherit’s close air support, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. Wehave certainly put more combat enablers there to limit the effect of thosegroups.
“But that’s something within Pakistan, that’s something the nation ofPakistan has got to resolve. Now we’re going to stay focused onAfghanistan,” Andrews said in response to a question.
The US expected Pakistan to take steps to ensure there were no sanctuarieswhere Taliban or other terrorist organisations could reside and where theyfelt, he said. “That’s something that Pakistan is going to have to do.”