US defense chief lands in Pakistan as ties between allies fray

ISLAMABAD: US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Pakistan Monday as Washington pressures its wayward ally to eliminate militant safe havens, days after Pakistani authorities freed an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Mattis landed at an air force base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi bordering Islamabad, according to a pool report, before heading to the US embassy.

During the brief stopover in the capital, he is set to hold talks with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Relations suffered a further blow after court ordered the release of firebrand cleric Hafiz Saeed in late November, prompting a furious response from the White House.

Saeed heads the UN-listed terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawa and has a $10 million US bounty on his head. He had been under house arrest but was released after a court in Lahore said officials had not provided any evidence of his role in the days-long assault on India's capital which killed more than 160 people.