US needs to improve, provide gear to fight, eliminate Taliban: Pak Army

Lahore, Dec.15 (ANI): There is an urgent requirement for the Pakistan Army to improve its gear if it wants to neutralize and eliminate the Taliban from the country, says the Newsweek.

The magazine quoted top Pakistan military officials as saying that the US would need to augment supplies of this gear, as the pressure on the country was huge to crackdown on the Taliban in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

According to the Newsweek report, the army insists it is doing all it can in the war on terror with the limited equipment it has, but for the country to do more, the US urgently needs to deliver the promised goods.

"We are on a war footing," the Daily Times quoted National Security Adviser Major General (retired) Mahmud Ali Durrani, as saying.

"But the US supply chain is working on a peacetime basis ... you have to support us at much greater speed," he added.

Senior Pakistani officials say Washington promised, in 2004, to deliver 20 Cobra helicopters within two years. But four years have passed, and only 12 have been delivered.

The Newsweek quoted the officials as saying that Pakistan needed the remaining eight Cobras in a hurry.

"We're burning them up at quite a rate," said a senior Pakistani official. "We use them aggressively in combat almost daily."

Citing a congressional staff expert on US arms sales, the report says the Pakistan military has "a reasonable basis for complaint, but that's universal, not unique to Pakistan".

Pakistan became a 'frontline ally' of the US in the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. US officials, however, have been repeatedly calling on Pakistan to 'do more' to rein in the Taliban, especially in the Tribal Areas. (ANI)