January 25, 2008	Friday	Muharram 15, 1429

WASHINGTON, Jan 24: The United States plans to significantly expand its counter-insurgency training to Pakistani armed forces, US officials said.

The plan includes providing new equipment to Pakistan for fighting militants in the tribal areas and elsewhere in the country.

The plan is attributed to Admiral William Fallon, head of the US Central Command which covers the area that includes Pakistan.

On Wednesday, a top US commander, Major-General David Rodriguez, warned that the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants are now focused on destabilising Pakistan and have postponed their spring offensive in Afghanistan.

The Fallon plan for providing new training facilities and equipment to Pakistan is part of a five-year $2 billion US defence aid package for Pakistan.

Under the plan, the United States will also help enhance Pakistan Army’s intelligence gathering capabilities and its air and ground mobility.

Officials in Washington noted that Pakistan has launched a new offensive against the militants in the tribal areas and are willing to send Special Operation Forces soldiers and technical experts. The US Special Forces personnel, however, will not directly engage the militants, officials said. Instead, they will work with the Pakistan Air Force and intelligence agencies.

Much of the increased US military cooperation would be tailored to improve the counter-insurgency operations of the Pakistani military and the Frontier Corps.

Ambassador Dell L. Dailey, the State Department’s counter-terrorism coordinator, told journalists in Washington that the United States will give $150 million each year for this plan. In turn, Pakistan will contribute $1.25 billion over five years.

On Thursday, The Washington Post quoted Admiral Fallon as telling its correspondent that “the plan to counter insurgents is to work with the Pakistanis to share intelligence, increase cross-border cooperation between ourselves, the Afghans and the Pakistanis, and to work with Pakistan’s military to increase their capability”.

Admiral Fallon was in Islamabad earlier this week where he discussed the plan with Pakistani military officials as well.

Experts told the US House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the United States needs to stay engaged with Pakistan to defeat terrorism.

“Unless Pakistan recognises that we are going to actually stick with them then they are not going to make that full commitment themselves to deal with this,” said Karl Inderfurth, a former ambassador now with the George Washington University. “So a long-term resolve, a long-term commitment for both Afghanistan and Pakistan is essential”.

Stability in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Inderfurth said, depends on an effective strategy to help Pakistan counter the Taliban and Al Qaeda along the border, and extremism internally, while making clear that the US is in the region to stay.

Retired Lieutenant General David Barno, now with the National Defence University, told the committee that a stronger Pakistani commitment to assert further control in its Federally-Administered Tribal Areas was essential.

“There is no way to succeed in Pakistan and Afghanistan without a partner in Pakistan, whose actions in alliance with us is also supported by the main political forces in Pakistan,” said Barnett Rubin of the New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation. “Unfortunately today they are not, because the military regime of General Musharraf lacks legitimacy in Pakistan today”.

Admiral Fallon, however, said he believes that “Pakistan’s military recognises the seriousness of the internal insurgent problem” and is willing to cope with it.