[R-G] U.S. military trainers to head to Pakistan

[Anthony Fenton]

  U.S. military trainers to head to Pakistan
April 10, 2008
 From Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/10/pakistan.trainers/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed  
deployment orders that will send U.S. military trainers to Pakistan  
this summer, CNN has learned.
art.corps.gi.jpg

Pakistan's Frontier Corps work at an observation post in the troubled  
Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan.

Their mission: To teach Pakistan Frontier Corps units  
counterinsurgency skills critical to fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Several Pentagon and military officials confirmed the order has been  
signed although it has not been publicly announced.

The deployment will be small -- just about two dozen troops who will  
stay through the spring of next year, according to the officials.

All of this is the first step in a long-term U.S.-Pakistani military  
program on counterinsurgency cooperation.

The U.S. trainers will begin by training key Frontier Corps units to  
become trainers themselves so the program can quickly expand. The  
Frontier Corps is drawn from tribes in the border area and is  
considered vital in the fight against militants.

Getting the agreement to send U.S. trainers to the Frontier Corps has  
been a crucial part of the long-term U.S. military and security  
strategy.

The trainers will work with the Pakistanis to improve their skills and  
try to encourage them to fight insurgents in the remote tribal region  
along the Pakistani-Afghan border, long said to be a safe haven for  
militants, according to the U.S. intelligence community.

In recent months, several senior U.S. military officials have visited  
Pakistan to meet with Pakistani Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani  
to get the trainer agreement. Military discussions had quietly  
continued through recent violence and unrest, officials said.

U.S. and Pakistani Army forces this month also have begun a major air  
assault training exercise, designed to improve the Pakistani Army's  
ability to conduct helicopter-borne operations such as moving troops  
in and out of the border region.

Almost 100 U.S. troops are there, training several hundred Pakistani  
forces.

Washington has sent billions of dollars to President Pervez Musharraf  
in recent years to battle extremists. The country is set to receive  
$300 million this year from the Bush administration for the cause. E- 
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