US expanding aid to Pakistan as offensive winds down against Taliban

The US government is preparing to expand their military aid to Pakistan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States is prepared to expand defense cooperation with Pakistan as quickly as that country wants, particularly in the wake of continuing attacks inside Pakistan by groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Gates, who arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, told reporters during his flight that the United States welcomes Pakistan's increased operations against militants in its autonomous tribal areas near the Afghan border, and offered as much assistance as the Pakistanis want.

'We are prepared to move ahead with that relationship and cooperation just as fast as they are prepared to accept it,' he said.

The United States has long called on Pakistan to be more aggressive against the militants in the border region. Gates said the Pakistani government and military have done more than any U.S. officials would have expected, or believed possible, a year or so ago.

Still, U.S. officials want Pakistan to take even more action against the militants, and the secretary said recent attacks might lead to that.

This news comes as Pakistan announces that their offensive in South Waziristan is over.

The Pakistani army has finished its offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, but may soon pursue militants in another part of the lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border, the prime minister said Saturday.
Yousuf Raza Gilani's suggestion of an operation in Orakzai tribal region, where it recently launched airstrikes, is another sign that Islamabad did not deal the death blow it had intended against the Pakistani Taliban by taking them on in their main base.
It also illustrates the intractable nature of the extremist challenge facing this nuclear-armed nation: Even as troops flood one militant stronghold, the insurgents can regroup in another stretch of the rugged, barely governed tribal districts.
The U.S. has long pushed Pakistan to retake spots along the border that have become safe havens for militants, a pressure likely to intensify now that 30,000 additional U.S. troops are heading to Afghanistan to take on a resurgent Afghan Taliban.
To Washington's chagrin, Islamabad has focused on groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, which threaten its citizens, rather than militants who have gone after U.S. and NATO forces across the border. Gilani did not indicate a shift in that strategy Saturday.

By: Brant