Pakistan's government on Thursday condemned the latest US missile strike in its territory while a militant Taleban group warned that another drone attack would bring reprisals within the country. Speaking in the parliament, Pakistani premier Yousuf Raza Gilani denounced the latest US spy drone attack which killed six people on Wednesday at Bannu district in northwest Pakistan, including a major Al-Qaeda operative. “These attacks are adding to our problems. They are intolerable and we do not support them,” Gilani told the national assembly. US spy drones have carried out more than 20 attacks in recent months but Wednesday's Bannu raid was the first outside the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan, known as a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters. The Washington Post newspaper reported early this week that the US and Pakistani governments have reached a tacit agreement on drone strikes within Pakistani territory, under which Islamabad allows them while continuing to complain about them and Washington never acknowledges them. However, the prime minister told parliament there was no “understanding” with the US which permitted the missile attacks. “Being chief executive of this country I want to assure you that there is no understanding,” Gilani said. But opposition MPs criticized the government in the parliament for failing to put pressure on Washington to stop violation of the country's territory. “If we do not stop them, tomorrow they can attack Islamabad or Kahuta,” MP Ahsan Iqbal said, referring to the country's main nuclear facility outside the capital. US envoy summoned The foreign ministry also summoned Anne Patterson, the US ambassador to Islamabad, to lodge a strong protest over the air raids that have fuelled public anger, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said in the capital. Sadiq said the US diplomat was told that “continued drone attacks undermined public support for government counterterrorism efforts and stressed that these attacks must be stopped”. “It was underscored to the US ambassador that such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added. Taleban leader vows revenge Top Pakistani Taleban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur on Thursday warned of reprisals by militants across Pakistan if the US carried out any further drone attacks in tribal territory, a spokesman for the commander said.. Bahadur's group has been accused by the United States of launching attacks across the border in Afghanistan, but it abstains from violence in the Pakistani territory under an understanding with military authorities. “We will start revenge attacks across other districts if the US drone attacks do not stop after November 20,” Taleban spokesman Ahmadullah Ahmadi said in a statement. Meanwhile, addressing NATO's military committee in Brussels on Wednesday Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani also urged a halt to the use of unmanned “combat aerial vehicles within Pakistani territory”. Kayani met NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and held meetings with Admiral Michael Mullen, U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and a French defense chief.
