ISLAMABAD - U.S. Senator John Kerry will push Pakistani leaders on Monday to explain how Osama bin Laden was able to hide in their country for years, without further inflaming Pakistani anger over the U.S. raid that killed the al Qaeda chief.
U.S. special forces flew in from Afghanistan on a secret operation to find and kill the al Qaeda leader on May 2, nearly 10 years after he orchestrated the September 11 attacks on the United States.
His discovery holed up in the comfortable garrison town of Abbottabad, only 50 km from the Pakistani capital, has revived suspicion that U.S. ally Pakistan knew where he was and has been playing a double game.
Pakistan has rejected that as absurd. It welcomed bin Laden's killing as a big step in the fight against militancy but objected about being left in the dark over the raid to get him.
Kerry arrived late Sunday and went quickly to see army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, handing him the list of US demands, according to a Pakistani government official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and declined to give more details because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Kayani told Kerry his soldiers have “intense feelings” about the raid, in apparent reference to anger and humiliation here that Washington did not tell the army in advance about helicopter-borne raid, and the fact it was unable to stop the incursion.
Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari’s office, meanwhile, said US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called him Sunday to discuss the raid’s fallout in Pakistan. Clinton has spoken of the need to keep strong ties with Pakistan, and stressed there’s no evidence yet its leaders knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on Sunday to President Asif Ali Zardari by telephone about the situation since bin Laden's death, Zardari's office said, adding Zardari told Clinton about parliament's concerns.
"Both agreed to resolve the issues amicably and move forward," the president's office said.
Compounding Pakistan's reputation as an unstable Muslim country infested with militants, gunmen on motorcycles shot dead a Saudi diplomat in the city of Karachi on Monday as he was driving to work.
The attack came days after unidentified attackers threw two hand grenades at the Saudi consulate in the city, Pakistan's commercial hub. No one as hurt in that attack.
Al Qaeda is violently opposed to the Saudi government, which is a close ally of Pakistan, and has vowed revenge for the killing of its leader, Saudi-born bin Laden.
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