By
Tim Shipman
The Daily Mail
General Ashfaq Kayani has demanded cuts in the number of U.S. personnel on Pakistani soil and said ties would be slashed altogether if another anti-terrorist raid was launched there, Pakistan threatened to cut military co-operation with America yesterday as recriminations flew over the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.
The country’s army chief demanded cuts in the number of U.S. personnel on Pakistani soil and said ties would be slashed altogether if another anti-terrorist raid was launched there.
General Ashfaq Kayani, who is seen as more powerful than Pakistan’s civilian leaders, was voicing widespread anger at U.S. claims that the country’s intelligence agency, the ISI, sheltered Bin Laden for a decade.
He told colleagues that a decision had been made to reduce the number of U.S. military personnel to the ‘minimum essential’ levels.
A spokesman said General Kayani ‘made it clear that any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military intelligence co-operation with the United States’.
Earlier, the Pakistan government warned of ‘disastrous consequences’ if the U.S. staged a similar attack on its territory.
But a senior British source said the U.S. would ignore the threats and launch another raid to capture or kill Bin Laden’s deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri – the new head of Al Qaeda – if they located him in Pakistan.
‘He’s next and they’ll get him if they can, however many feathers it ruffles,’ one official said. ‘It has always been likely that he is in Pakistan.’ The source said that General Kayani’s comments were ‘intended for internal consumption’.
U.S. officials called for the annual aid that America sends to Pakistan to be blocked until the government explains how Bin Laden lived in a compound (pictured) right next to the Pakistani Army training school
‘Whenever there’s an American strike on Al Qaeda you always hear these public complaints but activities of that nature still continue with tacit consent,’ the source added.
HILLARY'S 'ALLERGY' COUGH
Hillary Clinton last night explained her anguished look as she put her hand to her mouth while watching footage of the assault on Osama Bin Laden’s lair.
Her gesture (pictured) stood out in the now-famous photograph of Barack Obama and his White House team monitoring the U.S. Navy Seals attack in which the Al Qaeda leader was killed on Sunday night.
The image led to speculation that she was witnessing his death.In fact, the U.S. Secretary of State claimed yesterday, she was probably stifling a cough.
She said: ‘I have no idea what any of us were looking at at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken.
‘I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs.
‘So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever.’
U.S. officials called for the £1.8billion in annual aid that America sends to Pakistan to be blocked until the government in Islamabad explains how Bin Laden lived only a few hundred yards from the Pakistani Army training school.
Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that allocates foreign aid, said: ‘It’s impossible for them not to have some idea he was there.’
Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said yesterday that Bin Laden’s wife Amal Al-Sadah had told interrogators that she had never left the terror chief’s compound in five years.
She, eight of Bin Laden’s children and five from another family were all living there under strict orders to keep a low profile.
Al-Sadah received a bullet wound in a calf after apparently rushing towards her husband as U.S. special forces stormed in.
Major Gen Abbas said the wife and children, currently in army custody in Pakistan, would all be ultimately returned to their countries of origin.
David Cameron has admitted that Bin Laden had an ‘extensive support network’ in the Pakistani security forces. Tory MPs want a review of the £650million in aid that Britain is sending Pakistan.
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