US has special training forces in Pakistan, says Pentagon

"We do have some US forces in Pakistan, have had them for some time. But they number fewer than 100.

"They are special operators who are conducting a train-the-trainer operation where we are training Pakistani military trainers who then in turn will be able to train their forces in terms of being better able to operate in counter terrorism situations," Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, told the Fox News in an interview.

Referring to a media report yesterday about top American commanders in Afghanistan pushing to expand special operations raids across the border into Pakistan's tribal belt to kill or capture militants, he said, "there are no plans as of right now for anything of that sort"

"We have signalled in the past, that we are ready, willing and able to work with the Pakistani military in all manner of ways, but they are a sovereign country, and so this is a partnership, and we've got to work according to what their interests are as well here," Morrell said.

He said the Pakistani military is probably best able to go after the threat in their midst.
"They recognise it now as an existential threat to their government, as it is to the Afghanistan government, as well as it is potentially to our friends and allies around the world," Morrell said.

Pakistan has been conducting operations over the past 18 months, two years at a far greater operational tempo than they ever have before, moving 140,000 troops from the eastern border along India to the western border with Afghanistan to get at the fact that there has been a safe haven historically within the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas, the official said.