Pak Army will ‘very possibly’ succeed in tackling Taliban havens in country: Mullen

KABUL - Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, remains positive that the Pakistani military will ‘very possibly’ succeed in shutting down Taliban hideouts on its soil to prevent terrorists from moving back and forth across the porous border with Afghanistan.

“I certainly think it is very possible that the Pakistani military will achieve the goal,” the Daily Times quoted Mullen, as saying.

He acknowledged that fixing this problem was critical to making progress in the war on terror, adding that he was encouraged by what Pakistan had already done to go after terrorists on its side of the border.

Admiral Mullen was talking to reporters in the Afghan capital alongside Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, who said the existence of terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan “makes delivery of peace and stability here in Afghanistan very difficult”.

Mullen also defended the country’s recent Afghan war review against critics, telling a press conference in Kabul that the United States was “getting there” in combating a nine-year Taliban terrorism, albeit “slowly and unevenly”.

“I can tell you this, the review just conducted was thoroughly, even brutally, honest,” Admiral Mullen said. “Others will no doubt, and have taken a more jaundiced view of our situation.

“I believe a wide array of opinion is important. But I also believe a sense of balance in adjudicating those views is even more important. We’ve done that here and I am more than comfortable with the result,” he added. (ANI)