Washington: Top American commanders in Afghanistan are pushing to expand special operations raids across the border into Pakistan's tribal belt to kill or capture top al-qaeda, Taliban and Haqqani faction commanders believed to be holed up there.
The plan has not yet been approved, but military officers appear confident that a shift in policy could be round the corner, New York Times reported quoting US officials.
The commanders believe that such raids could lead to capture of key militant commanders bringing in an intelligence windfall as well as turn the tide against Taliban decisively.
The US forces are known to have made forays across the border into Pakistan, in special forces operations that have infuriated Pakistan, but these could be expanded to become more routine, the Times said.
"Now, the American military officers appear confident that a shift in policy could allow for more routine incursions," it said.
The American commanders are coming up with plans for cross border raids as a sense of urgency takes hold of military and political planners in view of the fast approaching deadline for the US troop withdrawal from the country.
"We've never been as close as we are now to getting the go-ahead to go across," a senior official was quoted as saying by the daily.
However, it also reported that there was no unanimous view point on this issue in the administration so far.
"In interviews in Washington and Kabul, American officials said that officers were drawing up plans to begin ground operations to capture or kill leaders from the Taliban and the Haqqani network," the Times said.
US officers are particularly eager to capture, as opposed to kill, militant leaders, who they say can offer intelligence to guide future operations, it added.
The report comes as President Barack Obama, in his annual review of his Af-Pak policy, had clearly said that Pakistan needs to do more in the war against terrorism especially against the safe havens inside the country.
The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Kabul, would escalate military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been barred because of fears of provoking a backlash.
But, US officials quoted by the paper said even with the risks, military commanders feel that such operations could bring in intelligence gains.
America's clandestine war in Pakistan, has so far been carried out by armed drones operated by the CIA. A decision to deploy special forces teams, signals Washington's growing frustration with Islamabad in efforts to root out militant
groups using its tribal territory to support Taliban and other radical groups.
NYT said that in recent years Afghan militias backed by the CIA had carried out number of secret missions into Pakistan's tribal areas.
The operations by Afghan operatives known as Counter terrorism Pursuit Teams, have previously been reported as solely intelligence-gathering operations.
But in recent weeks, the paper said, it has been revealed that on at least one occasion, such teams went on an offensive and destroyed a militant weapons cache.
Even before finalising any cross border raid plans, Obama administration has steeply stepped up its air assaults in Pakistan's tribal areas, which have witnessed and unprecedented number of drone strikes this year.
Since September, the CIA has mounted more than 50 drone attacks in and around North Waziristan killing more than an estimated 200 militants, mostly of foreign origin.
CIA, NYT said, has also established Paktika Defence Force that serves as a special operations force against insurgents throughout Afghanistan. Similar Afghan special groups also operate around cities of Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad as well as in the rural provinces of Khost and Kunar.
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