Al-Qaida leaders in FATA, Mullen says

WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- The leadership of the terrorist cabal al-Qaida is hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northwest Pakistan, the top U.S. military official said.

U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the National Press Club in Washington that al-Qaida's leadership, a top military target, was hiding out in the volatile regions along the border with Afghanistan.

Airstrikes from suspected unmanned U.S. aerial drones have struck targets inside Pakistani territory in an effort to take out top al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

"The top priority, with respect to that strategy, is to defeat al-Qaida," said Mullen.

Mullen went on to praise Pakistani military efforts to take on the lingering insurgency in the volatile tribal regions following the collapse of a cease-fire agreement with the Taliban earlier this year.

"A year ago, not many people would have said that the Pakistani military could pull that off, and yet they have made an awful lot of progress," he said.

Suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan killed at least 45 militants and extremists, reportedly wounding a key Taliban leader, Maulana Fazlullah.

Pakistani forces, for their part, have pledged to take out Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban.

U.S. intelligence officials claimed they "almost" took out Mehsud in a June attack in South Waziristan in the tribal region.