The Obama administration Wednesday acknowledged that US relations with Islamabad were "complicated", but said ties remained strong after news that CIA informants had been arrested in Pakistan. "The co-operation that we do get is vital and essential to our war against terrorists and terrorism," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
"Our relationship with Pakistan is extremely important. It is also complicated." The New York Times reported Wednesday that Pakistan's top spy agency had arrested five Pakistani informants who assisted the CIA ahead of a raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad.
State Department spokesman Marc Toner would not comment the report that the five Pakistani informants, including an army major, had worked with the CIA ahead of May 2 assault that killed bin Laden. "We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts, we work through issues when they arise," Toner said.
He said that since the raid there has been "an intensity of engagement that illustrates our commitment to working through these issues."
"We've been upfront about challenges in the relationship but we've been also consistent in saying Pakistan and US need each other," he said. "We need to work through these challenges because it's in both of our long term and short term interest to do so."
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that one of the detainees was reported to be a Army major whom officials said copied license plates of cars visiting the al Qaeda leader's compound in Abbottabad north-west of Islamabad.
The fate of the CIA informants arrested in Pakistan was unclear, the newspaper reported, citing American officials. Outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta raised the issue of the informants' detention during a trip to Islamabad last week where he met Pakistani military and intelligence officers, the newspaper said.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) declined to comment, but the army denied that any army major was among those arrested in connection with the May 2 raid by US special forces.
A senior Pakistani security official said some people were detained in connection with the Abbottabad raid and they were still being investigated.
Asked whether those arrested were CIA informants as mentioned in the NYT report, he said: "Investigations are under way and after completion of investigation one can say which category they belonged to."
Some in Washington see the arrest as another sign of the deep disconnect between US and Pakistani priorities in the fight against extremists, the New York Times reported.
The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs until after it was completed, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting US military and intelligence ties under serious strain.
Last week, at a closed Senate Intelligence Committee briefing, Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell rated Pakistan's co-operation with the United States on counter-terrorism operations a "three" on a scale of 1 to 10, the NYT reported, citing officials familiar with the exchange.
Other officials cautioned that his comments did not represent the administration's overall assessment, the newspaper said. "We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise," CIA spokesman Marie Harf told the newspaper.
"Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It's a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs."