Trump adviser visits Pakistan after massive airstrike

ISLAMABAD – U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser met Monday with Pakistani officials on his first visit to the South Asian country since the United States dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said.

H.R. McMaster arrived in Islamabad after holding talks in Afghanistan on efforts to combat the Taliban and the Islamic State group’s Afghan affiliate, which was the target of Thursday’s massive bombing. The U.S. dropped the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, on an Islamic State tunnel complex carved into a mountain, reportedly killing 95 militants.

McMaster met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other senior officials. A statement from Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz said that Islamabad remained committed to working for peace and reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan, and that Pakistani officials had discussed efforts to secure the border.

McMaster expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s democratic and economic development, and stressed the need to confront terrorism in all its forms, according to a statement from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.