‘US was ready to raid Pakistan to free hostages’

WASHINGTON: US military officials were ready to mount a raid deep inside Pakistan to rescue an American and her family, if the Pakistani government declined to take action against the Haqqani network that kidnapped the couple in 2012, The New York Times has reported.

The newspaper detailed the decision making process within the US administration about the operation and in which the US ambassador to Pakistan pressed the host government to cooperate saying, "Resolve, or the United States will."

The implication was clear that if the Pakistanis did not act decisively, the United States would set aside its unease and launch a raid deep inside the country to free the family, the report said, adding it would be another unpleasant episode for the Pakistani government, reminiscent of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, conducted by the same elite Navy SEAL commandos well into Pakistan without its government's knowledge.

Citing unnamed senior US officials, it also said that Navy SEAL Team 6 was mobilised to conduct a rescue operation days earlier but the operation was called off. President Trump was briefed about the operation and the options that if Islamabad failed to cooperate, the SEALS would go in. The commandos had even started rehearsing.