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Mullen: More foreign fighters are in Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — More foreign fighters, including al-Qaida militants, are operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas than in the past, underscoring the need for Pakistan to crack down on insurgent safe havens, the top U.S. military officer said during a visit here.

Adm. Mike Mullen said militants are flowing into Afghanistan more freely this year compared with last year because Pakistan’s government and military are not putting enough pressure on insurgents.

“There’s a clear problem on the border,” said Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. “There’s clearly not enough pressure being brought to bear, particularly on the Pakistan side of the border. There’s more freedom there.

“There’s a new government in Pakistan who is working its way through figuring out how to get at the extremist challenge.”

Mullen said that a recent pact Pakistan’s government made to go after militants who don’t agree to lay down their weapons could be useful if it’s enforced. Previous peace deals in Pakistan’s tribal areas only gave insurgents freedom to carry out militant operations.

“There are clearly more foreign fighters in the FATA (Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas) than have been there in the past,” he added. “What it really speaks to is that’s a safe haven and it’s got to be eliminated for all insurgents, not just al-Qaida, although al-Qaida certainly is a top priority because of the threat al-Qaida represents.”

Attacks in eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. forces operate along the border with Pakistan, are up 40 percent this year compared with last year, and June was the deadliest month for U.S. and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Militant attacks are becoming more complex, intense and better coordinated than a year ago, Mullen said.

On the subject of Iran’s testing of long-range missiles, Mullen said this week’s exercises come at a “very tense time.”

“It has the potential to send signals,” he said of the tests. “That said, I’m still very much in the position that we need to bring international pressure, diplomatic pressure on the Iranians, as fast and as intense as we can to see if we can resolve this tension. This doesn’t help in terms of the instability that’s in the region already.”

Mullen said the tests show that Iran is on the path to a “fairly significant” technical and military ability that “raises the ante” in the Middle East.