By Paul Tighe
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should provide intelligence to help Pakistan's security forces fight pro- Taliban militants in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.
Pakistan wants ``actionable intelligence and we will act upon it,'' the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Rehman as saying in New York where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly with President Asif Ali Zardari.
The Pakistani leader will use his address this week to outline the critical situation the country is facing trying to combat extremists, Rehman said. A suicide bomb attack killed 53 people at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Sept. 20.
Pakistan's anti-terrorism operations have created tensions with the U.S., which says the government isn't doing enough to combat al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters based on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan. Zardari has made clear Pakistan objects to the U.S. carrying out unilateral military strikes inside Pakistani territory in pursuit of terrorists.
Zardari warned in his first speech to Parliament on Sept. 20 that his country won't tolerate the violation of its sovereignty and territory.
``Your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country and the United States wants to help,'' President George W. Bush said before a meeting with Zardari in New York yesterday.
Pakistan has ``problems'' it is working to resolve, Zardari said. ``We should come together in this hard time and we will share the burden and responsibility with the world.''
Permission to Strike
The Pentagon has presidential permission to unilaterally strike Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington yesterday.
Gates said it was ``certainly'' his view that the UN charter allows a nation the right of self-defense when a foreign government is either unable or unwilling to take care of international terrorist activity inside its borders.
``The fact we are operating under a UN charter in Afghanistan certainly strengthens that,'' Gates said.
Renewed military operations by the Pakistani military are stemming cross-border Taliban attacks against U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, he said.
Military Operations
Pakistan's military said last week more than 700 gunmen were killed in six weeks of fighting in the Bajaur tribal region in the northwest.
Security forces killed 50 militants in North West Frontier Province over the past two days at Dara Adam Khel, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of the provincial capital, Peshawar, Major Murad Khan said yesterday.
Security forces took control of the Kohat Tunnel linking Peshawar with Sindh Province, he said. The tunnel was damaged in a bomb attack several months ago, APP cited Khan as saying.
Pakistan's fight against terrorism involves a strategy of improving the economy in the tribal regions and using force only when necessary against militants there, Zardari said in his speech to lawmakers.
The operations in the northwest have put pressure on terrorists and the Marriott bombing may have been a result of their frustration, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said after the attack.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at
ptighe@bloomberg.net
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