US commander says top threat to Pakistan comes from extremists, warns government must act

September 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has made it clear that it would not hesitate to retaliate if its citizens are targeted by militants based in Pakistan. In an interview with the PBS, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Admiral Mike Mullen said Islamabad is also aware that if US citizens are targeted by Pakistani militants then Washington would certainly respond.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Pakistan has realized that the Taliban and other extremists based in the western tribal area of the country pose the real existential threat to it rather than India. In an interview with a private television channel, Gates said Pakistan has acknowledged that the real threat to its existence come from the extremists based in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border and not from India.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US says it is working closely with the intelligence services of Pakistan and other countries to disrupt the weapons supply lines of Taliban extremists posing a threat to other nations as well. 'Yes, we know that the extremists are being supplied,' US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday at her first briefing for the foreign media through what was billed as a global press conference.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States policies towards Pakistan have been inconsistent over the last 30 years. "It is fair to say that our policy towards Pakistan over the last 30 years has been incoherent.

May 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has reiterated his confidence that the Pakistani military is equipped to prevent extremists from taking over its nuclear arsenal, but would not rule out the option of sending US troops to secure them. As the US tries to strengthen Islambad as a partner, he also sees 'a decided shift' in the Pakistan Army's recognition that extremism is a much more immediate and serious threat than the one from India that they've traditionally focused on.

May 14th, 2009 Senators link Pakistan aid to focus on extremistsWASHINGTON — Senators on Thursday linked U.S. aid to Pakistan to whether the nation denounces and battles extremists who have threatened security in its northwest and displaced tens of thousands of refugees.

May 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Responding strongly to critics of his administration in the United States, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that the war against extremists and militants in the tribal badlands had begun much before the 9/11 strikes across America. "It's a war of our existence," Zardari told NBC News's Meet the Press.

May 8th, 2009 LAHORE - The United States has said it would ensure that the millions of dollars of aid, which it would be providing to Pakistan over a period of time, does not end up being used against India through cross-border terrorism. A US State Department spokesperson said Washington would make sure that the aid be utilized only for the purpose it is being given to Islamabad, and certainly not for fuelling militancy against India.

April 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says the US is encouraging Pakistan to recognise that its obsession with India as its mortal threat has been misguided and focus on their biggest threat from extremists internally as Washington does not want to see Pakistan ending up as a nuclear-armed militant state. 'On the military side, you're starting to see some recognition just in the last few days that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided, and that their biggest threat right now comes internally,' Obama said at a prime time news conference Wednesday capping his 100th day in office.

April 25th, 2009 Petraeus: Taliban, not India, top Pakistan issueWASHINGTON — Pakistan's leaders should focus on the looming threat posed by a stronger Taliban and extremists within their nation's borders, instead of their rivalry with India, a top U.S. military official said Friday.

April 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The commander of US forces in the Middle East has claimed that the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group is planning to carry out more attacks similar to one launched on Mumbai in November last year. The Daily Times quoted CENTCOM chief General David Petraeus as telling lawmakers here: "We should observe that the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group that carried out the Mumbai attacks, we think they're trying to do more damage and they're trying to carry out additional attacks." Warning of further attacks, General Petraeus said the US expected "that extremists that are trying to cause that kind of tension and also to take (Pakistan's) focus off of the internal extremist threat would indeed strive to do that." He also said that Pakistan's leaders must recognise that internal extremists and groups such as the Taliban pose the most pressing threat to their country.

April 24th, 2009 US urges Pakistan to focus on Taliban, not IndiaWASHINGTON — The United States is urging Pakistan's military to focus more on the Taliban and extremists advancing inside their borders instead of the nation's longtime enemy — India. The top U.S.

April 24th, 2009 Petraeus: Pak focus should be Taliban, not IndiaWASHINGTON — Pakistan's leaders should focus on the looming threat posed by a stronger Taliban and extremists within their nation's borders, instead of their rivalry with India, a top U.S. military official said Friday.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Raising questions over Pakistan's will to act against extremists, the Democrat Senator from Michigan and head of the Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin has said that it is unlikely that Islamabad would ever act against terrorists based on its soil. "The evidence is mixed as to whether or not the government in Pakistan is going to take on the religious extremists," The Daily Times quoted Levin, as saying.

April 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Even as Pakistan faces 'an existential threat' from terrorists, many Pakistani leaders consider India as its principal threat and regard extremist groups as potential strategic asset against India, according to a top US commander. 'Destabilization of the nuclear-armed Pakistani state would present an enormous challenge to the United States, its allies, and our interests,' General David Petraeus, commander of US Central Command told the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday.