U.S. OK'd Troop Terror Hunts in Pakistan

American military vehicles patrol a stretch of road near Khost area, 1 mile from the Pakistani border, in this April 4, 2004 file photo about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan where U.S troops searched the porous and mountainous border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File) (Emilio Morenatti - AP)

Lt. Col. David Accetta, spokesman for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said last week he could not talk about rules of engagement along the Pakistan border. He did say, after an AP reporter informed him of Horrigan's comments, that the rules haven't changed since January, when Horrigan spoke.

A high-ranking Ranger officer who has served in Afghanistan and is familiar with the current rules of engagement said that if he found himself "in contact" with the enemy at the border, he would feel authorized to chase them into Pakistan. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the high sensitivity of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.

Occasionally, there have been signs of American operations in the Pakistani frontier.

In January 2006, tribal elders told the AP that U.S. helicopters had launched an attack on remote Saidgi village, about three miles from the Afghan border in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan tribal region.

A tribal leader, Momin Khan, said the Americans took away five tribesmen. The Muslim cleric whose home was attacked was not there, but an explosion had killed eight people and wounded nine.

The U.S. military denied involvement, and Pakistan's chief Army spokesman said he couldn't confirm the raid.

A week later, the CIA purportedly sent a Predator drone from Afghanistan into Pakistan, unsuccessfully firing missiles at al-Zawahri. The attack missed bin Laden's deputy but reportedly killed four other al-Qaida leaders _ although that information was never verified _ and 13 villagers. Pakistan officially condemned the attack and said it had no advance notice.

In recent weeks, top Bush administration officials have staked out sometimes varying positions on the matter of penetrating Pakistani's borders.

On Aug. 5, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was cautious in describing how U.S. officials would handle an incursion. "I think we would not act without telling (Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf) what we were planning to do," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

That was far more tentative than what White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend said last month when asked on Fox News why the U.S. wasn't sending special operations forces and drones into Pakistan.

"Well, just because we don't speak about things publicly doesn't mean we're not doing many of the things you're talking about," Townsend said. She didn't elaborate.

On Aug. 5 at Camp David with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush wouldn't say whether he would consult with Pakistan before ordering U.S. forces to act inside that country. "With real actionable intelligence, we will get the job done," Bush said, without elaborating.

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Scott Lindlaw reported from San Francisco; Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan and Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Pakistan contributed to this report.