US condemns Pune terrorist attack

The Obama Administration has strongly condemned the Pune bombing and said it believes that counter-terrorism cooperation is a key element of the bilateral relationship between the US and India.

"We do note that the United States and India view enhanced cooperation in counter-terrorism as an important element to our bilateral strategic partnership," the State Department Acting Spokesman, Gordon Duguid, said yesterday.

Condemning the terrorist attack in the strongest terms and sending condolences to the families of the victims, Duguid said the US and India are working together as never before to combat terrorism.

"The United States and India, since the Mumbai attacks, are working together to enhance information collection, intelligence sharing, and analysis capabilities, and our governments are sharing significant information to help safeguard our countries," he said.

"The information we have shared so far has been quite unprecedented, and we intend to continue to working with the Government of India to try and protect our two societies from these types of attacks," Duguid said, in response to a question.

The State Department spokesman said America is working with both India and Pakistan against the threat that all the three countries face from terrorists and extremist groups.