WASHINGTON - President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow U.S. Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, senior American officials said.
The classified orders mark a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, and after months of a high-level stalemate about how to confront the militants' increasingly secure base in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
U.S. officials say they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks such as the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border but they will not ask for its permission.
