US Footprint Expanding in Pakistan

You knew it was coming, right? The US is expanding its footprint in Pakistan. Yay.

A senior US official says the American military plans to expand new training centers inside Pakistan in a bid to boost its so-called war on terror.

The senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the centers would be used to accelerate and expand the training of Pakistani forces, AP reported.

Washington which invaded neighboring Afghanistan more than eight years ago to allegedly destroy the militancy says the Pakistani military is key to rooting out al-Qaeda leaders allegedly hiding along the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

According to the official, the plan will build a number of smaller training centers in the Northwest. Senior US officials have said they hope to train more than 9,000 members of the Pakistani Frontier Corps paramilitary force. The plan will also slash their previous four-year training time by half.

This comes at a time when anti-US sentiments are running high in Pakistan. Indiscriminate US drone attacks have killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, resulting in a surge in anti-American sentiments.

Anti-US groups have targeted growing numbers of American troops inside Pakistan. Last week, three US special operations soldiers were killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb inside Pakistan. They were the first known US military fatalities in nearly three years.

By: Brant