LeT no more local, has links with al-Qaeda: US

Washington: Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai attacks, is "no more local" and it has links with al-Qaeda, which is helping and providing assistance to the terror outfit to launch attacks in India, a top US defence officials said on Thursday.

Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said al-Qaeda is supportive of LeT and is providing them with information on targets in India.

"Al-Qaeda is supportive of Lashkar-e-Taiba.... al-Qaeda is providing them with targeting information and helping them in their plotting in India, clearly with the idea of provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan that would destabilise Pakistan," Gates said.

LeT is blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people, including foreigners.

Agreeing with Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said: "I certainly agree with the nexus (between Al Qaeda and the LeT), and I have watched it over the last year to two, that these groups are coming together... Secretary Gates talked about the linkage between the LeT and al-Qaeda."

"It is actually not local anymore and that is an example of the collaboration that's going on with all these units... I was struck, as I'm sure you were, in Mumbai that a terrorist outfit could literally generate that kind of attack and then bring two nation-states closer to conflict."