Us Increasingly Entangled in Islamist Web in South Asia

The United States is entangled in an Islamist web from Afghanistan to India that exposes its reliance on Pakistan as a central but increasingly fragile ally in the war on terror, analysts say.

The 60-hour siege last month in Mumbai, even if it is eventually proven to have been masterminded by Kashmiri separatists, advances broader Islamist aims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and beyond, And nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has long backed various Islamist groups, is more than ever central to the growth of the militant problem in all three countries and a key to their solution.

The Pakistani security services "created a monster that they can't tame," said Robert Grenier, a former US Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Islamabad who is now managing director of Kroll, a risk consultancy.

Islamist groups offer Pakistan a tool to thwart perceived threats in Afghanistan and India but are now turning on their masters in Islamabad and drawing them into a potentially dangerous confrontation with powerful India.

And the United States, which seven years ago drove Al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts from Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, now finds itself scrambling to put out fires on three fronts.

"Any time you're trying to wage a campaign, it's to your great advantage if you can sequence it, if you don't have to take on all of your enemies simultaneously," said Grenier .

Washington is caught in the middle of the latest regional flareup as it tries to defuse India's rage toward Pakistan -- with which it has fought three wars -- by urging Islamabad to help bring the Mumbai masterminds to justice.

The White House said Wednesday that it hoped Pakistan would adopt a tougher stance towards Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Kashmiri militant group considered the prime suspect in the Mumbai attacks that left 172 people dead.

The comments came after Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said authorities there had arrested two senior LeT members in the wake of the siege.

A senior State Department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that more arrests were required.

But Pakistan's civilian government, its military and security services fear, analysts say, a backlash not only from Taliban militants on the border with Afghanistan but Kashmiri groups in the Punjab.

"As we place pressure on the Pakistanis to act appropriately to the Mumbai outrages, we are piling even further burdens on a system that is very nearly overwhelmed," Grenier warned.

Ashley Tellis, a south Asia specialist for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said recent improvements between the nuclear-armed neighbors risked being reversed sharply.

"It's really a challenge for the US at this juncture to be able to compel the Pakistanis to produce something that will genuinely satisfy the Indians so they don't feel compelled to respond through unilateral actions," he said.

Even the Mumbai militants ultimately aimed to create an Islamic state in India, which has a large Muslim minority, they would be happy with byproducts that advance a broader Islamist cause, according to Tellis.