Tensions flared between US and Paki officials

Pakistan and US trade barbs over Taliban havens

* Obama’s top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan and Sherry Rehman exchange harsh words at conference

ASPEN: Tensions flared between the United States and Pakistan on Friday, as two top officials traded accusations of doing too little to combat the Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The tart exchange between the officials, Douglas E Lute, President Obama’s top adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s envoy to the United States, took place during a conference.  Under questioning from Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes”, Sherry, speaking on videoconference from Washington, said that Pakistani Taliban, who have taken refuge in two remote provinces in eastern Afghanistan, were increasingly carrying out rocket attacks and cross-border raids against Pakistan.  “These are critical masses of people that come in; this is not just potshots,” she said. The envoy said further on 52 different occasions in the last eight months Pakistan had provided to the US and NATO commanders in Afghanistan the locations from which the terrorists were attacking, but to no avail Immediately, Lute, a retired three-star general and deputy national security adviser, fired back. “There’s no comparison of the Pakistani Taliban’s relatively recent, small-in-scale presence inside Afghanistan to the decades-long experience and relationship between elements of the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban,” he said. “To compare these is simply unfair.”
Pakistani officials say two senior Taliban commanders — Mullah Fazlullah from Swat and Faqir Muhammad from Bajaur — are taking refuge in Afghanistan while their fighters plan attacks in Pakistan. 

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