Obama Admits: Attack On US Soil Likely
President Barack Obama admits that al-Qaeda network is planning fresh raids on the United States from the militants' safe havens in Pakistan. Obama said Wednesday the US would chase and defeat the terrorist organization wherever it is present in the world. Pakistan and Afghanistan would not be allowed to become a safe haven for al-Qaeda and its allied groups, the US president said while addressing a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London. Obama's remarks followed a threat by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud, who said his group was planning a terrorist attack on the US to 'amaze' the world. "Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Baitullah Mehsud said Tuesday, giving no further details. US intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Mehsud could eclipse even Osama bin Laden as a threat to America. Obama further urged Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaeda and Taliban along its troubled border with Afghanistan. The US president had earlier unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying the top goal was to destroy al-Qaeda. "Al Qaeda and its allies are cancer that risks killing Pakistan From within," said Obama on Friday The warnings come after multiple intelligence estimates warned that al-Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the US homeland from its safe-haven in the violence-hit Pakistan. Al-Qaeda's top leaders are believed to be hiding in tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where their Taliban allies have strongholds. The insurgents have regrouped in the tribal areas after a US-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and sent militants to border areas with Pakistan. American officials say the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border threaten the US and its western allies' security in the western countries. On September 11, 2001 a series of attacks were launched on New York and the pentagon by suspected al-Qaeda insurgents, killing 2,973 people.