WASHINGTON, Sept 14: US military strikes at Taliban and Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan are risky but necessary and were long overdue, says a Washington Post editorial published on Sunday.

“They must continue.”

The newspaper claimed that for more than six years, the Bush administration relied on Pakistan to combat the militants but it only strengthened the Taliban and Al Qaeda networks in Fata.

The policy, the Post said, also led to a steady increase in Taliban assaults on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan while US intelligence community believed that Al Qaeda was using its bases to prepare for new attacks on Western targets, including the United States.

“By now it is clear that Pakistani army and security forces lack the capacity to defeat the extremists — and may even support some of the Taliban commanders,” the paper claimed. “Pakistan’s army has arranged truces with some of the extremists that don’t preclude them from fighting in Afghanistan.”