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Summary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan that US would do everything we can to defend its forces.
US officials, including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, suspect militants from the Haqqani network were behind Tuesdays rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul, as well as a truck bomb last Saturday that wounded 77 American forces.Time and again weve urged the Pakistanis to exercise their influence over these kinds of attacks from the Haqqanis and we have made very little progress in that area, Panetta told reporters flying with him to San Francisco.He added, I think the message they (the Pakistanis) need to know is: were going to do everything we can to defend our forces.He declined to answer questions about what steps the United States might take to defend U.S. forces. But Panetta said he was concerned about the Haqqanis ability to attack American troops and then escape back into what is a safe haven in Pakistan.And thats unacceptable, Panetta said.The CIA has had success targeting militants in Pakistan using pilotless drones, and Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May during a covert raid in Pakistan. Last month, Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, cited progress curtailing Haqqani movements within Afghanistan.Im not going to talk about how were going to respond. Ill just let you know that we are not going to allow these kinds of attacks to go on, Panetta said.US officials including Panetta have played down the significance of Tuesdays attack on Kabuls diplomatic enclave, which showered rockets on Western embassies in a dramatic show of insurgent strength.Panetta stressed the attacks themselves were repelled by Afghan forces and inflicted a limited number of casualties. The US military has cited gains against the Taliban in the past year, particularly in southern Afghanistan.
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