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The chief US diplomat played up Washington’s co-operation with Islamabad despite doubts she and other US officials have voiced in the past about Pakistani willingness to work with the US to root out Al Qaeda.
It is “important to note that our counter-terrorism co-operation over a number of years now with Pakistan contributed greatly to our efforts to dismantle Al Qaeda,” Clinton told reporters
“In fact, co-operation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which he was hiding,” Clinton said.
Doubts about Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Al Qaeda were revived after US forces shot and killed bin Laden in a heavily-fortified villa in the heart of Abbottabad, a garrison city two hours by road north of Islamabad.
But a senior US intelligence official said: “We have no indications that the Pakistanis were aware that Osama bin Laden was at the compound in Abbottabad.”