Al Qaeda, Taliban safe havens in Pakistan remain 'biggest security risk': Pentagon report

Washington, May 3 (ANI): The presence of Al Qaeda and Taliban safe havens in Pakistan still remains an unresolved issue and the biggest risks to the process of turning security gains into a sustainable Afghanistan, according to a new Pentagon report.

According to the Pentagon report, there exist plenty of problems that the US military in Afghanistan has been grappling with for years.

"Many are simply "beyond the capability of the US military to address - and beyond the capacity of the military to fix," The Christian Science Monitor quoted Brian Jenkins, a former special forces officer, as saying.

According to the report, first among these are the Taliban and Al Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan, from which the insurgent fighters who battle US troops "operate with impunity."

The report said that these remain among "the biggest risks to the process of turning security gains into a durable and sustainable Afghanistan."

Another biggest issue that affects and upsets most Afghans is the "widespread corruption" that limits the effectiveness of the government.

Jenkins, also a senior adviser to the president of the RAND Corp, pointed out that the capacity of the US military to grapple with these issues remains limited.

"While the mere presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan "provides a great deal of economic benefit to the country, on the other hand, those kinds of sums of money also create enormous opportunities for corruption," the paper quoted him, as saying.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon report, which is due to Congress every six months, touted "security gains," but also noted that they are "fragile and reversible." (ANI)