Hunt is still on for Al Qaeda in FATA: US Defense Secretary

The hunt is on for Al Qaeda leaders and remnants in Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), claimed U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates during an interaction with a Congressional panel here on Wednesday.

Washington, May 10 : The hunt is on for Al Qaeda leaders and remnants in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), claimed U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates during an interaction with a Congressional panel here on Wednesday.

Gates told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that the Al Qaeda had established training facilities in the FATA, besides terror cells in other parts of the world.

"We know that Al Qaeda has re-established itself in the Federally-Administered Territories on the western border of Pakistan where they are training new recruits," the Dawn quoted Gates, as saying.

"They have established linkages now in North Africa. And so ... Al Qaeda has actually expanded, I would say, its organisation and its capabilities," he added.

When Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat, asked Gates if there were US military missions in that area pursuing Al Qaeda activists, Gates replied "Yes, sir. We are still going after the Al Qaeda leadership."

He, however, explained that Al Qaeda was operating from an area that was difficult, both in terms of terrain and in terms of politics.

ANI