BAGRAM AIR BASE, Aug 18: The American general leading the campaign against Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan has said there may now be more of the extremists operating in Pakistan than in the original theatre of war.

Lieutenant-General Dan McNeill, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, conceded that his task was now more complicated as the coalition does not have the right to conduct combat missions in Pakistan.

McNeill said that while President Pervez Musharraf’s government had been one of the staunchest supporters of the US-led ‘war against terrorism’, sympathy for Al Qaeda remained strong in tribal areas of Pakistan.

The general was reluctant to put a figure on the number of Al Qaeda fighters still at large, but suggested fewer than 1,000 were now in Afghanistan.

“I think in Afghanistan they probably still exist, they could number in the hundreds. I think just outside Afghanistan’s borders ... their numbers could be in the hundreds, maybe even a thousand,” said McNeill.

Hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters are thought to have crossed the border into Pakistan from Paktia in the aftermath of Operation Anaconda in March.

Pakistan has since been conducting its own operations against the fighters. It is understood that US agents have also taken part in some of the missions. “I have seen that the Pakistanis concede there are indeed Al Qaeda in Pakistan,” said the general.—AFP