US warns of Lashkar-e-Taiba threat

Expressing concern over continued threat posed by Lashkar-e-Taiba to stability in South Asia, the United States has asked Pakistan to take more action against the terrorist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. "We've urged Pakistan to take more action against Lashkar-e-Taiba," Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counterterrorism told reporters in a special briefing on the State Department's annual terrorism report. "We'd certainly like to see more progress on that trial regarding the atrocities in Mumbai," he said noting that LeT "remains a major concern on the terrorist landscape, without a doubt." Benjamin said he had not seen any decrease in LeT strength and "the threat to stability in South Asia that it poses." The State Department report itself also warned that "terrorist opponents of better Indian-Pakistan relations, such as the LeT, have long planned to derail any progress by launching new attacks." The overview of terrorism and terrorist groups around the world found that Osama bin Laden's death in Abbotabad, coupled with the killing of top al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan, "puts the network on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse." The report says the June death of Iyas Kashmiri and the August killing of Atiya Abdul Rahman, al-Qaida's second-in-command after bin Laden's death, are among the top blows dealt to the organization in Pakistan. But it warns that "despite blows in western Pakistan, Al Qaeda, its affiliates, and its adherents remain adaptable."