Over 70 US military advisers working in Pakistan: NYT

WASHINGTON: Over 70 American military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its military units conduct operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Tribal Areas, the New York Times reported late on Sunday.

Citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the advisers mostly include US Army Special Forces soldiers.

Overseen by the US Central Command and Special Operations Command, the advisers provide the Pakistan Army with training and intelligence, the report said. But they do not get involved in combat operations.

The advisers form part of a secret task force that was started last summer with the support of the Pakistani government and military, the report said.

The cooperation has never been publicly acknowledged, but is beginning to pay dividends, the paper noted.

It also said that a small team of Pakistani “air defence controllers” work in the US embassy in Islamabad to ensure “that Pakistani F-16 fighter-bombers conducting missions against militants in the tribal areas do not mistakenly hit remotely piloted American aircraft flying in the same area or a small number of CIA operatives on the ground,” the Times said, quoting a senior Pakistani officer that it did not identify.

The newly formed 400-man Pakistani paramilitary commando unit is a good example of the new cooperation. As part of the Frontier Corps, which operates in the Tribal Areas, the new Pakistani commandos fall under a chain of command separate from the 500,000-member army, which is primarily trained to fight Pakistan’s archenemy, India.

The commandos are selected from the overall ranks of the Frontier Corps and receive seven months of intensive training from Pakistani and American Special Forces.

The newspaper claimed that F-16 warplanes of the Pakistan Air Force conduct “about a half-dozen combat missions a day” against the Taliban, “but Pakistani officers say they could do more if the Pentagon helped upgrade the jets to fight at night and provided satellite-guided bombs and updated satellite imagery”.

Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who is visiting Washington this week to participate in talks for a review of the US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, “was expected to take a long shopping list for more transport and combat helicopters to Washington”, the newspaper said.

“The question of more F-16s — which many in Congress assert are intended for the Indian front — will also come up,” the Times quoted Pakistani officials as saying.According to the Times, the new Pakistani commando unit within the Frontier Corps has used information from the Central Intelligence Agency and other sources to kill or capture as many as 60 Taliban in the past seven months, including at least five high-ranking commanders.

Four weeks ago, the commandos captured a Saudi man linked to Al Qaeda, the report said.

But the main commanders of the Pakistani Taliban, including its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and its leader in the Swat region, Mullah Fazlullah, remain at large, according to the paper.

US military officials are also concerned that they have not been able to persuade General Kayani to embrace large-scale counterinsurgency training for the army itself, the Times said.

“The United States missile strikes, which have resulted in civilian casualties, have stirred heated debate among senior Pakistani government and military officials, despite the government’s private support for the attacks,” it said.

An American official that the newspaper did not name, described General Kayani, “who is known to be sensitive about the necessity of public support for the army”, as “very concerned” that the strikes had undermined the army’s authority in Pakistan.

“These strikes are counterproductive,” NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani told the newspaper in an interview. “This is looking for a quick fix, when all it will do is attract more jihadis.”

“Pakistani army officers say the strikes draw retaliation against Pakistani troops in the Tribal Areas, whose convoys and bases are bombed or attacked with rockets after each US missile strike,” the newspaper said. afp/daily times monitor