US-trained Pakistani commandos to move into FATA

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I wonder how many of us on this forum are from a Military background. I find this hard to comprehend .

No military man worth his salt will accept such an argument. Intelligence sharing etc is another option but this ..... Anyway Good luck & god speed.

Cactus, please refer to Blain's post #14.

 

[blain2]

Also wanted to share the following from Guardian about the fact that there is no easy solution for the situation in FATA...Americans getting involved will not spring any miracles either (it will most probably worsen the situation):


US eyes up Pakistan's lawless lands
The prospect of direct US military intervention against al-Qaida in Pakistan is increasing, but they may regret taking action


* Simon Tisdall
*
o Monday August 04 2008 17:30 BST


The turbulent prospect of direct US intervention against al-Qaida and Taliban jihadi bases in Pakistani territory adjoining Afghanistan appears to have moved closer following last week's visit to Washington by Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousef Raza Gilani.

Far from reassuring his hosts that Islamabad is on top of the situation in the so-called tribal areas, Gilani's uncertain performance seems to have convinced US officials of the need to move quickly. A sub-text to this dangerously fast-moving drama is George Bush's desire to catch or kill his 9/11 nemesis, Osama bin Laden, before he leaves office in January.

Bin Laden and senior al-Qaida leaders are believed to be in the lawless, former princely state of Swat, in North-West Frontier province, or in areas such as Waziristan in Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas. Their support for Taliban efforts to drive Nato forces out of Afghanistan has brought escalating military and civilian casualties – and pressure from US commanders to strike back across the border.

Afghanistan is now more dangerous for US and British troops than Iraq. And US officials in Baghdad say leaders of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia recently left for Afghanistan, taking new recruits and foreign fighters with them.

Primary US concern, plainly expressed to Gilani at the White House, focuses on the pressing need to stop the aiding and abetting of the Afghan Taliban by Pakistani counterparts and itinerant jihadis. But nagging fears also persist of a major terrorist outrage aimed directly at the US, mounted from the Hindu Kush and coinciding with the presidential election's climax.

"The worst thing that could happen to the US-Pakistani relationship would be another large al-Qaida strike against the US staged from the tribal areas – a possibility that is frighteningly real," the Washington Post said on Saturday. Recognising the situation's political complexity, the paper called for a careful, flexible US response. But it also suggested unilateral US military action, such as last week's CIA Predator drone missile strike on a presumed al-Qaida target deep inside Pakistan, may be necessary and justified.

Pakistani officials complain that Predator attacks – there have been several over the past year – invariably kill civilians and alienate the local population. "The new government [elected earlier this year] has been holding talks with the Islamists. But whenever we seem to be making progress, one of the US drones seems to lose its way. It's perpetually happening," a senior Pakistani official said. "We're saying to the US, now we're a civilian government, please give us time to get results. Drones and gunships will not resolve the issue."

Such arguments are undermined by heavy fighting in the past week in Swat, where a May ceasefire with the Taliban has collapsed, and by US intelligence findings that members of Pakistan's military-run Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate are collaborating with the jihadis and assisted last month's bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

This latter claim was initially flatly denied. Later, Pakistan information minister Sherry Rehman admitted: "There are probably still individuals within the ISI who are ideologically sympathetic to the Taliban and act on their own."

Apparently responding to US worries about rogue operations, Gilani's government announced, as he was flying to Washington, that the ISI would be placed under the control of the civilian-led interior ministry. A day later, after the security services reportedly refused point-blank to agree to the change, the government embarrassingly backed down.

These events have underscored US suspicions that Gilani does not control the military and intelligence apparatus put in place by his political enemy and former army chief, Pervez Musharraf, who still holds the presidency. They have also strengthened the hand of those in Washington who, egged on by an increasingly alarmed Indian government and by the beleaguered Karzai, feel the US must take charge.

Unless the political situation turns around dramatically, the extension of the Afghan war into western Pakistani territory now looks highly probable. And while there will be continuing limits on US involvement, those restrictions may become increasingly elastic.

Under discussion now, according to US and Pakistani officials, are plans for the insertion of US-trained Pakistani special forces into the border badlands, backed by US advisers and US air power; the deployment of more sophisticated US-supplied technology and communications equipment; increased intelligence sharing; and greater use, in theoretical consultation with Islamabad, of Predator missile strikes.

The plans are still under discussion. But Congressional threats to withhold military and other funding if Pakistan demurs, and offers of big economic assistance packages if it plays ball, suggest the Americans will get their way.

They should be careful what they wish for. By any measure, this is a fraught undertaking. And given the brutal history of an ungoverned region the British signally failed to tame, the Americans may come to rue the day they crossed the Durand Line.

 

[batmannow]

Australia to offer military advisers


CANBERRA, July 30: Australia will offer military advisers to Pakistan to train security forces to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda militants taking sanctuary there from neighbouring Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon called for a bigger international effort, including more economic and military aid, to combat Taliban militants based in Pakistan’s largely tribal border areas.
“We must arm the Pakistani army with the skills and means to conduct counter-insurgency campaigns and civil operations,” Fitzgibbon said in a speech, warning Pakistan must not become a breeding ground for Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah militants.
Fitzgibbon said this month he was “pessimistic” about the security situation in Afghanistan, where Australia has 1,080 troops. He said Pakistan must be secured for the US and Nato-led war effort against Afghanistan militants to succeed.
“Despite their best efforts, and their heavy losses ..., they are making only limited headway in dealing with the lawlessness in that particular region,” he told the National Press Club.
A southeast Asia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiah has been linked to a series of bombings in Indonesia, including blasts on the holiday island of Bali between 2002 and 2005 in which 92 Australians died.

Australia, a close US ally, was an original member of the coalition that invaded the country to oust Afghanistan’s Taliban militants from their country.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have deteriorated sharply in recent months as Kabul repeatedly accused Pakistani agents of secretly backing Taliban insurgents fighting Afghan and foreign troops.
Pakistan’s new civilian government has launched talks with militants in its tribal border region to defuse violence that has killed hundreds of Pakistanis in the past year.
Fitzgibbon said any assistance to Pakistan would have to come at the invitation of the country’s government and Australia planned to open talks on military and economic aid soon. “I’m not talking about a deployment which requires force protection and sending people into the tribal areas. I may only be talking about military advisers in Islamabad,” he said.—Reuters

 

[SSG VIPER]

US-trained Pakistani commandos to move into FATA​

* Senior Pakistani official says deployment of special force will meet American demand for immediate action in Tribal Areas
* Says proposals calibrated to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty​

WASHINGTON: A Pakistani Special Service Group (SSG) unit, trained by Americans, is to be deployed in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan to take quick and effective action against insurgents.

A report in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday said: “The Pakistani commando division, trained by the United States, is an elite special operations force similar to the [US] Army’s Special Forces, or Green Berets. Pakistan has been criticised for sending conventional troops who do not have training in the kind of guerrilla warfare techniques that US officials say are needed to fight the militants in the Tribal Areas. ‘The Americans tell us that they need action now,’ said a senior Pakistani official who was in Washington last week during Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s meetings with President [George W] Bush. Deployment of the special Pakistani force ‘will meet the American demand of immediate action’.”

Protection: The senior Pakistani official told the newspaper that the proposals were calibrated to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty. Islamabad has also proposed allowing the US to deploy more sophisticated equipment in the Tribal Areas in a joint effort to track and kill insurgents, officials said. Pakistan’s military has told the Pentagon that it is planning to move a major unit of its regular army into the Tribal Areas and senior Pakistani officials have proposed a plan in which the intelligence services of both countries would work to end the conflict between the spies and informants that each uses in the Tribal Areas and who have often been working against each other.

Accusations: While US officials accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to block the cross-border movement of militants, Pakistan, in turn, has criticised the CIA for cultivating assets in the region that it believes are against Islamabad’s interests. “The Pakistan government wants to show that we want to bring terror in our region to an end and that we want to work with the United States for that purpose,” the senior Pakistani official told the American newspaper. “But we also believe that there is more that the United States can do as well, and that we have asked it to do.”

Ambassador Husain Haqqani has confirmed that various proposals were discussed during last week’s meetings, but said he could not talk about them. Embassy spokesman Nadeem Kiani said, “They have agreed to take certain measures, but it would not be appropriate to make them public, so that results could be achieved. But we are discussing and have agreed to take certain actions to strengthen relations between the two countries and to fight the war against terrorism more successfully so our mutual objectives could be achieved.”

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

I think they mean FC as it was talked abt sending us military advisors to train them..And SSG i dont think so some stupid report.PAK does study and train its forces by modern standards but not by foriegners.Remember US training offers turned down by GEN Kayani(FOR FC) do u think we will let them train SSG....Joint exercises are held with various countries like UK,Turkey,USA,France etc we train others not the other ay around remember Omanese,Alfateh,Jordianians,syrians,bengalis,saudis,turks,srilankans ETC
SUCH FALSE REPORTS BREAK MY HEART
STUPID REPORTERS

 

[Slides]

While we're paying with our blood, the US unable to provide us with modern helicopters (though they have helped in other areas) and now they will claim all the success of the Waziristan op as well I guess.

Oh well, as long as we get assistance in this fight instead of "do more" slogans.