Pakistan to US: No, We Won't Attack Haqqani

Following a "special" meeting of Pakistan's military leaders, the country has decided not to heed US calls to attack Haqqani, a local paper says. “We have already conveyed to the US that Pakistan cannot go beyond what it has already done,” a military official told the Pakistani paper. The US believes Haqqani was behind the Sept. 13 attack on the American embassy in Kabul, and has issued ever-stronger accusations that the militants have ties to Pakistan’s spy agency.

Last week, a US official went so far as to call Haqqani a “veritable arm” of the ISI, saying Pakistan had backed the Kabul attack, Reuters notes. Pakistan rejects the accusations; it says its army is already overburdened fighting the Taliban, and experts suggest an attack on Haqqani militants could severely damage Pakistani forces. The country’s military is further hamstrung by civilian anger at the US. “Are we responsible for the attacks that Taliban do throughout the country?” asked a car salesman. “It was a big mistake of our rulers that they supported Americans.” (More Pakistan stories.)