The US military urged Pakistan on Monday to kill or capture foreign militants holed up near the Afghan border and expressed concern over Pakistan's recent amnesty for several tribal militants.
The top US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General David Barno, said foreign fighters - including some from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda - were still launching attacks from Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt near the Afghan border.
"We clearly still see significant elements of foreign fighters there. There are Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks, others who are not Pakistanis, who are not part of the tribes, that are still using that area to advance their terrorist aims," Barno said.
He said it was too early to say whether Pakistan's amnesty to five tribal leaders suspected of sheltering al Qaeda members would help clear the area of insurgents.
"We have some concerns that could go in the wrong directions, but we're watchful and we're most interested in how that is going to develop here," he told a news conference in Kabul.
But Barno said insurgents living in the desolate area still posed a threat.
"We very much see that the Pakistani military will continue to need to put the pressure on them, to conduct combat operations to search them out and to eliminate them as a threat," he said.
"Our view is that there are foreign fighters in those tribal areas who will have to be killed or captured," Barno said.
"It's very important that the Pakistani military continue with their operations to go after the foreign fighters in particular, who in my judgment will not be reconciled," he said.
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