US to keep up drone strikes in Pakistan
Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta yesterday said the US would continue to attack al-Qaeda in Pakistan despite complaints from Islamabad that the drone strikes violate its sovereignty.
"We have made it very clear that we are going to continue to defend ourselves," Secretary of Defence Panetta said in India a day after the US announced the killing of al-Qaeda's number two Abu Yahya al-Libi.
"This is about our sovereignty as well," Panetta added, arguing that al-Qaeda militants who orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the United States were in Pakistan's tribal areas.
"The leadership of those who were involved in planning this attack are located in Pakistan, in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas)," he said.
Panetta confirmed the strike on "another deputy leader" of the terror group, referring to al-Libi who once escaped from a US jail in Afghanistan and had escaped previous assassination attempts.
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