ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's army said Friday that its attempts to destroy four militant bomb-making factories only partly succeeded because intelligence on two of the sites was wrong. But the army also disputed media reports that security forces had tipped off insurgents after getting US intelligence on the factories, calling those assertions of collusion “totally false and malicious.” The carefully worded, two-paragraph army statement never says the US shared intelligence on the sites in question. It also was unclear about their exact location and does not say when the raids occurred. Nonetheless, it's likely to further add to tensions between the US and Pakistan, which have been unusually high since the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. American officials told The Associated Press in early June that they'd shared satellite information with Pakistan about two militant bomb-making factories and that within 24 hours, they watched the militants clear out the sites, raising suspicions that the Pakistanis shared the information. Various media accounts said the factories were in the Waziristan stretch of Pakistan's tribal belt, where Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters have long proliferated. The intelligence sharing was part of a US attempt to improve relationship with Pakistan. The alliance has been especially weakened since the May 2 killing of the Al-Qaeda chief in the northwest Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. Bin Laden's presence there has only added to US suspicions that elements within Pakistan's powerful security establishment were playing a “double game” by colluding with some militants while going after others. Friday's statement says the army launched attacks on four compounds suspected to be where militants built “improvised explosive devices” – which typically come in the form of roadside bombs. Two were found to match that description and were destroyed, but the information on the others was “incorrect.” “Some persons have been arrested and they are under investigation,” the statement adds. Pakistan's military has launched offensives aimed at clearing Bajur area of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, but the militants there still retain the ability to strike. The US has supported efforts to clear Bajur, but it has also pushed it to go after militants in North Waziristan. Many of the militant groups in that region are focused on attacking Western forces in Afghanistan.
