Washington: The number of American
military trainers in Pakistan has been reduced by half in over
a last month or so and talks are on with the Pakistan Army
about the rest of the trainers, the Pentagon on Tuesday said.
About 100 US military trainers were engaged in the
counter-terrorism training of the North West Frontier Corps.
After the unilateral US military action to kill Osama
bin Laden, hiding in a safe house in Abbottabad - an effluent
neighborhood of Islamabad in May, the Pakistan Army in
retaliation asked the US to reduce the presence of its defense
personnel in Pakistan.
The number of trainers has been reduced to half in the
last month or so, Pentagon spokesman Col Dave Lapan told
reporters during an off camera news briefing here.
"There are ongoing discussions with authorities in
Pakistan about the rest," Lapan said, adding that he has no
idea about what the final numbers would be.
While Pentagon maintains the number of US defence
personnel remain between 200 and 300; before the operation
against bin Laden this was touching 300, not it has been
reduced to a little over 200.
PTI
