US to train Pak troops how to fight out Taliban

Lahore, Oct 18 : In a bid to train the Pakistani forces how to fight out the Taliban, the US military has begun a training effort inside Pakistan this week. The training programne was a part of the US' "promise' to help Pakistan in fighting Taliban in the Tribal Areas, report the Christian Science Monitor (CSM).

It said that the US deployed a small unit of about 30 special-forces personnel in Pakistan this week to bolster the Frontier Corps (FC) to fight Taliban.

The report said that the security personnel team was significant "not for its size, but for the expectation that it could give Pakistan the tools to fight Taliban on its own."

The US wanted a 'Pakistani face' to the counter-Taliban efforts, added the report.

It further said that the long-proposed sale of new and refurbished F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan had become "so critical to the Bush administration", which believes the old fleet of fighters the Pakistani Air Force is using now aren't effective.

However, the US Congress was not sure that Islamabad could be 'trusted to use the planes' against tribal Taliban.

It said the US Congress members wanted to know why Pakistan would need a jet fighter with 'air-to-air' fighter capability "when all the Pakistanis really need to fight Taliban from the air is a plane or helicopter with 'air-to-ground' or 'close air support' capabilities".

ANI