US defence secretary Leon Panetta warned Pakistan on Thursday that Washington is losing patience over its failure to eliminate safe havens for insurgents who attack US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Mr Panetta lashed out at Pakistan and the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network during a brief visit to Kabul overshadowed by fury over a Nato airstrike that allegedly killed 18 civilians, an issue that the Pentagon chief did not address in public.
Mr Panetta left Kabul less than five hours after his arrival, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged to cut short a trip to Beijing and head home over the deaths of around 40 civilians on Wednesday in the airstrike and a suicide bombing.
Mr Panetta’s trip to Kabul to assess the state of the war and plans to withdraw US combat troops by the end of 2014 coincided with an increase in violence.
“Even though we are seeing an uptick in violence in recent days, the overall level of violence is down from past years,” he said.
The Haqqani group, a faction linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda that is believed to be based in Pakistan’s lawless tribal district of North Waziristan, is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan’s 10-year war.
“It’s an increasing concern that this safe haven exists and that there are those like the Haqqanis who are making use of that to attack our forces,” Mr Panetta said.