US told to halt Pakistan strikes

THE US commander running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, held talks yesterday with Pakistani leaders who told him to stop US strikes on militants in Pakistani territory.

Petraeus arrived in Pakistan on Sunday, at the beginning of his first foreign tour since taking charge of US Central Command, highlighting US concern about a country seen as crucial to stability in Afghanistan and to defeating al-Qaida.

US analysts say Pakistan is facing a major threat from Islamist militants at a time when the nuclear-armed nation and its new civilian government are engulfed in extraordinarily difficult economic problems.

Petraeus has been hailed as an outstanding military leader for helping pull Iraq back from the brink of civil war with a strategy that brought a “surge” of 30,000 extra US troops.

US presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, have said they would boost US troop strength in Afghanistan from the present 33,000.

Petraeus was being accompanied in Pakistan by assistant US secretary of state Richard Boucher.

Their visit comes as relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained by a series of cross-border US strikes, most by missile-firing pilotless drone aircraft, on militant targets in Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari told Petraeus the attacks should stop, Pakistan’s state news agency reported.