No plan to pull CIA spy from Pakistan
The CIA has no plans to withdraw its top spy from Islamabad after his identity was allegedly divulged in a Pakistani newspaper, a US official said on Monday.
A US drone strike targeting a vehicle killed four militants in Pakistan's tribal belt yesterday, local officials said, the second such operation since the killing of Osama bin Laden.
A security official said US drones fired two missiles into South Waziristan, one of seven districts in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border that Washington has called an al-Qaeda headquarters.
"Two missiles were fired on a vehicle at about 4:15pm and four militants were killed," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The identity of the militants was not immediately known.
The publication of the name came amid severe tensions between the two countries, with Islamabad complaining of "unilateralism" after the US raid last week that killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
"There are currently no plans to pull the CIA's chief of station out of Pakistan," a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Pakistani daily The Nation published the supposed name. The New York Times reported that it may have spelled it incorrectly, citing unnamed officials.
US officials told the Times that the move appeared aimed at disrupting the work of Washington's spy agency in the aftermath of the bin Laden raid.
In December, the CIA had to withdraw its top spy in Islamabad after a newspaper published the name of the officer.
The White House said Monday it would not "apologise" for launching the operation on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani criticised the US raid and also insisted the country reserves the right to "retaliate with full force".
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