‘Pak-US military relations at worst since 9/11’

[LRE]

‘Pak-US military relations at worst since 9/11’

* Kayani tells NATO he won’t retrain or re-equip troops to fight counter-insurgency war

WASHINGTON/LAHORE: Relations between the United States military and the Pakistan Army are at their worst point since September 11, 2001, senior Western military officers and diplomats have said, as Pakistani troops withdraw from Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. According to Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, writing in the Washington Post, there are also signs that Washington is delaying delivery of US arms meant for the eastern front and is asking Western allies to do the same.

Kayani: The report says that army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has told US military and NATO officials that he would not retrain or re-equip troops to fight the counterinsurgency war along Pakistan’s western border. Instead, it adds, the bulk of the army would stay deployed on Pakistan’s border with India. While the US is training and equipping 100,000 troops of the Frontier Corps, it has rejected Pakistani requests to equip four to five new units, Rashid claims. According to the report, the Taliban virtually rule FATA. The Pakistani army, it adds, is ‘shaken’ because of the losses it has suffered, which is why it has offered peace deals to the Taliban, which unfortunately do not stop the Taliban from attacking NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. These attacks from Pakistan are said to have risen sharply. Meanwhile, Baitullah Mehsud has vowed that jihad in Afghanistan will continue, even as Afghan President Hamid Karzai expresses frustration at Pakistan’s attitude on ‘sanctuaries’ in the Tribal Areas. The Afghan leader is said to have confessed that he has been unsuccessful in “convincing the world to end the sanctuaries for terrorism.” khalid hasan/daily times monitor

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg1_3