ISLAMABAD, June 23: Top US military commander Gen Tommy Franks arrived here on late Sunday for a two-day visit during which he is to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf.
Franks, the head of the US Central Command the former commander of American troops in Afghanistan, was received at Chaklala air force base by Chief of General Staff, Lt Gen Shahid Aziz.
He will meet Musharraf to discuss the “ongoing cooperation between Pakistan and the United States” in the war on terror before travelling on to Afghanistan to meet US troops, a military official told AFP.
“During his stay in Pakistan he will call on President Gen Pervez Musharraf and hold talks with senior defence ministry officials,” said the official, requesting anonymity.
US and Pakistani troops are currently hunting down hundreds of scattered Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives from the US-led action in Afghanistan last year.
The Pentagon has said the United States has around 1,100 troops at three bases in Pakistan to support operations in Afghanistan, but Musharraf has put the figure at a few “communications experts”.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents based in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt bordering Afghanistan have come under rocket attack on at least five occasions in the past two months, local officials say.
In the most recent attack, unknown assailants fired a rocket at accommodation housing five Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in the remote town of Miranshah on late Tuesday, officials said. No one was hurt.
Franks will also broach the current military stand off between India and Pakistan during his talks in Islamabad, the spokesman added.
Pakistan has assured Washington that its huge troop commitments on eastern borders to counter an Indian mobilization will not affect its operations along the western border with Afghanistan—AFP
