Pakistan Warns Petraeus on Missile Attacks

General told that US cross-border strikes are giving anti-American Islamists a boost

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 4, 2008 6:19 AM CST

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Pakistan Warns Petraeus on Missile Attacks — Members of a Pakistani Islamic students group burn a US flags at a rally in Karachi last month to condemn the suspected US strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Pakistan has told the new chief of US Central Command that missile strikes inside its territory must stop, the Guardian reports. Gen. David Petraeus was warned that the strikes on suspected al-Qaeda militants in tribal areas across the Afghan border are fanning anti-American sentiment and creating a "credibility" gap for Pakistan's new government.

Petraeus, who made Pakistan his first visit to the region after assuming his new command, is believed to be planning to repeat successful Iraq counterinsurgency tactics in Afghanistan, but the cross-border missile attacks on militant strongholds in Pakistan are not expected to end. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have vowed to focus on defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan's border zone if elected.
(More Pakistan stories.)

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