The United States has deployed hundreds of troops along the Paki-stan-Afghanistan border near the tribal North Waziristan Agency as fears grow of an attack on the Haqqani network, security sources said.
“There has been big movement along the border near North Wazir-istan. The US is seemingly preparing to launch an attack on North Waziri-stan,” a Pakistani security official said. “The heavily armed US forces are backed by helicopter gunships. US forces have sealed the border,” said the official.
Relations between Pakistan and the US have deteriorated as the US is pressing Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan. The Pakistan government and the military rejected the US demand and told them that a US operation in North Wazi-ristan would be treated as an attack on Pakistan.
In the last few days, however, some senior US officials have visited Islamabad and “agreed” on an “acceptable arrang-ement”. Analysts believe the US will use drones to target the Haqqani network and that the ground forces will stay on the Afghanistan border for backup.