Pak military training program was never a 'secret' affair, claims Pentagon

Washington, Feb.24 (ANI): Confirming reports about its team imparting military lessons to the Pakistani army, the Pentagon has rejected claims that its military training program in Pakistan was a 'secret' affair.

"The training effort with the (Pakistan) Frontier Corps is not a secret," Pentagon spokesperson, Bryan Whitman said.

Whitman said the program has been openly discussed and going on for months, and was not any undercover mission as claimed by a US daily.

"We've talked about it on the record for several months," The News quoted, Whitman, as saying.

Earlier, the New York Times had reported that 70 US military trainers were involved in a secret mission of imparting training and intelligence to counter the increasing extremism of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the troubled tribal region across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Whitman also said that there were only 30 US military officials involved in the program.

"We've never really talked about the composition of the US military team.There were fewer than 100 military personnel in total, stationed in Pakistan, including the training contingent," he added.

Meanwhile, a report published in the Times claimed that the Pakistan Frontier Corps has killed or captured at-least 60 terrorists, including five of the top militant commanders operating in the region, based on informations provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the last seven months. (ANI)