Washington, May 6: The United States has refrained from drawing a parallel between 9/11 and the dastardly Mumbai attacks and appeared to be unwilling to support any similar "hot pursuit" Indian effort as done by the US Special Forces in Pakistan to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden
"I don't want to speculate too broadly about an operation that was clearly unique in the history of the US and the history of the world, where we had an individual who was possibly the most wanted man in the world and had perpetrated heinous crimes against not only American citizens but citizens around the globe," state department spokesman Mark Toner said.
He was responding to question if the US policy of "right to self defense" applies to other countries including India as the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks are roaming freely inside Pakistan.
"I don't want to draw too broadly a picture here. What we've said all along is that this was an individual where, when we had actionable intelligence against him, we acted upon that because we believed he was a direct and imminent threat to the United States," Toner said.
Toner said he is aware of all those terrorism related cases in India including the attack on the Indian Parliament and the Mumbai terrorist attack.
"Our counterterrorism cooperation both with India and with Pakistan is ongoing and we believe that it's directed at exactly these kinds of elements," he said.
Pakistan based terror outfits, mainly Lashkar-e-Toiba have been accused of planning, facilitating and financing the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
