‘US deliberately targeted Pakistani forces’


* Pakistan Army threatening to postpone training of its troops by US in counter-insurgency
By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: “This is the first time the United States has deliberately targeted co-operating Pakistani forces,” Jehangir Karamat, a former Pakistan army chief and ambassador to Washington, has been quoted as telling the New York Times, referring to a US air raid on a border post in the Mohmand Agency.

Karamat said, “There has been no statement by the US that this was ‘friendly fire’ and that the intention was not to target Pakistani forces.”

Training programme: The newspaper quoted two Pakistani officials from Islamabad as saying the Pakistani military was so angry over the American airstrikes last week that it was threatening to postpone or cancel an American programme to train a Pakistani paramilitary force in counterinsurgency tactics to be used for combating militants.

The report said some Pakistani officials were convinced that the Americans had deliberately fired on their military, killing 11 men from the very paramilitary force the Americans want to train, an accusation the Americans deny. There has been no word of regret or apology from the Pentagon.

The US military has said the airstrikes were carried out in self-defence against militants who had attacked American forces in Afghanistan and then fled into Pakistan. But the Pakistanis continue to dispute important parts of the American account.

Ending or delaying the programme, which is already under way, would deny the US what little leverage it has in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to combat a rising number of cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the paper said.

The newspaper said the fury over the airstrikes was such that Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the Americans hoped would be a dependable successor to President Pervez Musharraf, had personally approved an unusually strong statement last week from the Pakistani military, which called the strikes “cowardly and unprovoked”.

General Kayani has refused every suggestion of letting American forces operate in the FATA, even on an advisory basis, American officials have said. A plan for American trainers to accompany Pakistani troops on missions to root out insurgents in FATA was ruled out completely, a senior Pakistani military official said.

The plan for American military advisers to instruct Pakistani trainers, who would in turn train Frontier Corps units in counterinsurgency tactics, was accepted by General Kayani as a “light-footed” alternative, American officials have said.

A Pakistani government official told the New York Times, “Pakistan thinks you have screwed up in Afghanistan and made Pakistan the fall-guy.”

great move by army,i hope PAF follows it and cancel F-16 order and buy some Rafales or Eurofighter...

knowledge is power
and traning is knowledge
let the pakistani marines train in usa

As much as I love the F16 we should cancel the order because we will learn nothing from it, its of no value to us or China.

Sino-Pak Allied Forces must stand together and improve the JF17 so it can not only match but outperform the USAF fighters like the F18 E/F Superhornet.

If Pakistan can produce 240 JF17 and 120 J10 thats 360 frontline fighters its impossible for US to attack Pakistan .

What about raptors and lightenings??? and B-2 sprits? US can do anything to us but US cant afford the after effects since they are already being ruined in iraq and afghanistaan
On the military technological bases we and as well as china cant compete US as for now and in near future.

Finally I am beginning to see what I always wanted to see - standing up to the enemy.

this is a bad move as the FC is not equipped or trained to deal with the Taliban, who are the enemy.