US backs Pakistan's move against mosque militants

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The United States backed Pakistan's decision to storm a mosque in Islamabad where militants were holding hostages Tuesday. A US State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said that the militants were given many warnings before the commandos moved on the sprawling Red Mosque compound before dawn. "The government of Pakistan has proceeded in a responsible way," Casey said. "All governments have a responsibility to preserve order." The extremists had been using the mosque as a base to send out radicalized students to enforce their version of Islamic morality, including abducting alleged prostitutes and trying to "re-educate" them at the mosque.