US-Pak engage in anti-terror training JV

Do everything possible against insurgency: US tells Pak

WASHINGTON: US has some “special operators” in Pakistan who guide their military trainers to better equip the forces in handling “counter terrorism situations”, the Pentagon said. “We do have some US forces in Pakistan have had them for some time. But they number fewer than 100.”

They are special operators who are conducting a train-the-trainer operation where we are training Pakistani military trainers who then in turn will be able to train their forces in terms of being better able to operate in counter terrorism situations,” Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, told the Fox News in an interview.

Referring to a media report about top American commanders in Afghanistan pushing to expand special operations raids across the border into Pakistan’s tribal belt to kill or capture militants, he said, “there are no plans as of right now for anything of that sort, we have signaled in the past, that we are ready, willing and able to work with the Pakistani military in all manner of ways, but they are a sovereign country, and so this is a partnership, and we’ve got to work according to what their interests are as well here,” Morrell said. He said the Pakistani military is probably best able to go after the threat in their midst.
“They recognise it now as an existential threat to their government, as it is to the Afghanistan government, as well as it is potentially to our friends and allies around the world,” Morrell said.
Meanwhile, reiterating its support to Pakistan in the fight against militancy, the US has asked Islamabad to continue doing “everything” to defeat insurgency in the country, which is a threat to their national security, State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news conference. “As we’ve said here many times, Pakistan has taken considerable action in recent years. No military in the world has suffered more casualties in the fight against terrorism than Pakistan,” Crowley said, adding that the US relationship with Pakistan is that of a strategic one. -Agencies

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