No ground troops in case of unilateral action in Pakistan: US official

US official says Pakistanis have been appraised of decision to not send ground troops in targeting militants.

WASHINGTON: A senior US official told Reuters on Friday that Washington would not send ground troops into Pakistan to attack militant positions in North Waziristan.

"There will be no boots on the ground," the official said. "That has been communicated to them (the Pakistanis)."

Pakistan and the United States have engaged in a diplomatic fusillade over the last week after outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said a violent Taliban faction was a "veritable arm" of the Pakistani spy service, the Inter Services Intelligence agency.

US and Pakistan have traded barbs over the last fortnight with US Defence Secretary saying that the US would take unilateral action against the Haqqani network if it had to.

Ever since the US conducted a ‘boots on the ground’ unilateral operation in Pakistan’s garrison town of Abbottabad, where they killed the then al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, ties between the two War on Terror allies have been tense. Pakistan has warned Washington against conducting a raid similar to the one on May 2.