WASHINGTON, March 10: The United States does not anticipate American troop movements into Pakistan to go after any possible Al Qaeda or Taliban fighters, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday.

Appearing on the CBC Face the Nation programme, Mr Powell said he considered Pakistan to be quite capable of “controlling their own terrain”.

The secretary was replying to a question on reports that Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters might be attempting to regroup in Pakistani areas bordering Afghanistan.

There have also been reports that fighters have been trickling in from Pakistan to reinforce those confronting US and coalition troops around Shahikot in Gardez, eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The Shahikot operation is described as the US army’s first close combat operation since the 1991 Gulf War.

It has claimed the lives of eight US servicemen. Casualties on the Al Qaeda/ Taliban side have not been disclosed, but hundreds are said to have been killed and injured.

It is reported here that local Afghan leaders in Gardez have sent a message to Taliban commander Saeef Rahman Mansour asking him to surrender.

The Afghans want to keep on trying to work for a surrender, although US military commanders believe that this would delay a final assault on Taliban and Al Qaeda forces bunkered in mountains and complicate the battlefield situation.