WASHINGTON, March 29: Strong indications of the United States involvement at some level in the raids carried out in Faisalabad and other places early on Thursday were available here on Friday, although no US troops were probably involved.

The head of the US Central Command, Gen Tommy Franks, said while he was not sure of all the facts about the raids, he could say that none of his forces were part of the operation, but there could have been cooperation between US “assets” and Pakistani “assets.”

“Assets” is the euphemism often used to characterize intelligence or security agencies, and it, thus, appeared possible that the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, already in Pakistan investigating the Daniel Pearl murder case and the Islamabad church bombing, were part of the raids.

The State Department pointed out that there continued to be close cooperation between the US law-enforcement authorities and Pakistan government in prosecuting the war against terrorism and in cases such as the kidnapping and brutal murder of Pearl and the church attack. These efforts, a senior department official said, would continue till “we have identified and brought to justice the perpetrators” of such acts.

Both the senior official and Gen Franks underlined the cooperation that they had been receiving from Pakistan.

Two people were killed in the raids on Thursday and several rounded up. The action was reportedly directed against Al Qaeda or Taliban people who might have sought shelter in Pakistan since the US and coalition military action was undertaken in Afghanistan.

Gen Franks, who recently visited Pakistan and was addressing a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday morning, said there was no doubt that during the course of the military action, some Al Qaeda or Taliban men would have attempted to go out of Afghanistan to Pakistan or other places, but he would put their numbers in 10s or 15s rather than describe them as part of large groups. He said the US had not so far felt the need for its forces to cross into Pakistan to search for these small groups, and he had not brought up the subject in his discussions with General Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.

There had been coordination between the US forces in Afghanistan and the Pakistan authorities, and only if it were felt that it was necessary to move troops into Pakistan would that question be raised. The US had not foreclosed anything, Gen Franks said, but again stressed that that he had not so far seen any necessity to send troops into Pakistan. The Pakistan authorities continued to work hard to provide cooperation to coalition forces.