Swat operation has 'bleak' chance of achieving success: US expert

Lahore, May 14 (ANI): While Pakistan has claimed to have sanitized hundreds of Taliban operatives during the ongoing military operation in the Swat Valley, a US expert has said the offensive has a 'bleak' chance of achieving success and yielding the desired result.

Key US strategist, David Kilcullen said that due to Pakistan Army's inexperience and its refusal to accept help from the West in the operation, the success of the Swat military offensive is doubtful.

Kilcullen, a leading adviser of the CENTCOM chief General David Petraeus, said the Swat operation's failure would ultimately endanger the international mission in Afghanistan by cutting off NATO supply routes.

He said the Pakistan Army has no counterinsurgency capability.

"The Pakistani military has no capability for what we would call counterinsurgency. What they are doing in the Swat valley is a conventional offensive. They need a more sophisticated approach and they need training and assistance, which they are currently refusing," The Daily Times quoted Kilcullen, as saying.

Kilcullen said the operation would hardly witness any change in situation in times to come.

"I'm not sure that, looking back on this in six months, we will see any improvement," he said. (ANI)