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 in Washington. "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.
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