US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was confronted repeatedly by Pakistanis earlier today as she ended a tense three-day tour of the country, chastised by one woman who said a US program using aerial drones to target terrorists amounted to "executions without trial."
On another thorny topic, Clinton slightly softened her blunt charge of a day earlier that Pakistani officials know where al-Qaeda terrorists are hiding and are doing little about it.
Mrs Clinton faced sharp questions from Pakistani civilians about the US effort that uses unmanned aircraft to launch missiles to kill terrorists along the porous, ungoverned border with Afghanistan.
But she refused to go into detail about the classified strikes that have killed both key terror leaders and bystanders, long a source of outrage among Pakistan's population despite an equally deadly campaign of militant-spawned bombings.
Asked repeatedly about the drones, a subject that involves highly classified CIA operations, Mrs Clinton said only that "there is a war going on." She added that the Obama administration is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the insurgents.
Mrs Clinton left Islamabad for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates after a tour that was rocked at the start by a devastating terrorist bombing in Peshawar that killed 105 people, many of them women and children.
Her visit revealed clear signs of strain between the two nations despite months of public insistence that they were on the same wavelength in the war on terror.
What is less apparent is what US officials hope will come from Clinton's tough language about Pakistani officials' failure to eliminate al-Qaida as a threat within their borders. While her remarks echo the skepticism that many Americans have felt about Pakistan's failure to target al-Qaida's leaders, it is not at all certain that they will prod stepped-up action.
Pakistan's military recently launched a major offensive in the South Waziristan border area to clear out insurgent hideouts. But two earlier army efforts made little progress there - leaving questions about the military's resolve to tackle al-Qaeda head-on.
Two US defence officials said today that the latest Pakistani sweep into South Waziristan, though still early, was making progress.
During an interview with Clinton broadcast live in Pakistan with several prominent female TV anchors, before a predominantly female audience of several hundred, one member of the audience said the Predator attacks amount to "executions without trial" for those killed.
Another asked Mrs Clinton how she would define terrorism.
"Is it the killing of people in drone attacks?" she asked. That woman then asked if Mrs Clinton considers drone attacks and bombings like the one that killed more than 100 civilians in the city of Peshawar to both be acts of terrorism.
"No, I do not," she replied.
Another man told her bluntly: "Please forgive me, but I would like to say we've been fighting your war."
After arriving in Abu Dhabi, Mrs Clinton was expected to meet Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Reuters