US To Offer Pakistan Help Against Attacks

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
January 19, 2008 By Farhan Bokhari and Demetri Sevastopulo
A senior American military commander will visit Pakistan this month to discuss the growing unrest in the country and possible deeper US military engagement, according to senior Pakistani and western officials.
Admiral William Fallon, head of US Central Command, will hold discussions on whether the US could provide training to help Pakistani forces deal with the increasing attacks from militants inside its borders.
The US was already concerned about the regrouping of al-Qaeda in the mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. More recently, it has become concerned about the growing threat deeper inside Pakistan's borders.
On Wednesday, more than 20 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed when Taliban militants attacked a remote fort in the south Waziristan region along the Afghan border. Yesterday, the Pakistani military retaliated when it killed at least 90 militants in two separate encounters.
Adm Fallon on Wednesday said the Pakistani military had begun switching from its traditional focus on the threat from neighbouring India to a counter-insurgency campaign internally.
"My sense is there's an increased willingness to address these problems, and we're going to try to help them," Adm Fallon told Agence France Presse.
The clashes on Wednesday and yesterday took place in a region ruled by Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban militant linked to al-Qaeda. General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, this week told the Washington Post that he agreed with the Pakistani assessment that Mr Mehsud was responsible for last month's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Gen James Cartwright, vice-chairman of the joint chiefs, this week said the US was evaluating whether the Pakistanis were able to handle the growing threat from militants inside Pakistan.
"Is it a threat that the Paks are ready to handle? Do they need training help? Do they need other types of help? That's what we're trying to assess right now," said Gen Cartwright.
Senior western defence experts in Islamabad believe that the Pakistani military, supported by the Bush administration in the war on terror, needs training and equipment to strengthen its capacity to fight insurgencies. "This is an army whose focus has traditionally been to fight territorial battles, primarily against the Indians," said one expert.
Shaukat Qadir, a Pakistani defence commentator, said that while the Pakistani forces knew the local terrain better than American forces, "the psychological dimension will be very important, the idea that there are US trainers on the ground helping Pakistani forces".
 
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