WASHINGTON (AFP) - Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in the city of Quetta, The Los Angeles Times reported.
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The newspaper said the prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta signals a new US resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington's relationship with Islamabad.
The concern has created tension among officials in the administration of President Barack Obama over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic option, the paper said.
Proponents, including some military leaders, argue that attacking the Taliban in Quetta -- or at least threatening to do so -- is critical to the success of the revised war strategy President Obama unveiled last week, The Times said.
"If we don't do this -- at least have a real discussion of it -- Pakistan might not think we are serious," the paper quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying. "What the Pakistanis have to do is tell the Taliban that there is too much pressure from the US; we can't allow you to have sanctuary inside Pakistan anymore."
But others, including high-ranking US intelligence officials, have been more skeptical of employing drone attacks in a place that Pakistanis see as part of their country's core, the report said.
According to The Times, Pakistani officials have also warned that the fallout would be severe.
"We are not a banana republic," The Times quotes a senior Pakistani official as saying. If the United States follows through, the official said, "this might be the end of the road."
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