The Pentagon said there are no American trainers in Pakistan, and clarified that it was two liaison officers, who had returned to Peshawar for coordination purposes, after being removed following a deadly cross-border NATO raid.
“There are no US trainers in Pakistan,” Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt, John Kirby, told reporters at a news conference.
Earlier in the day, the Pakistani military denied claims that a group of American trainers had returned to the country several months after their departure following the NATO air strike that had killed 24 soldiers.
An unnamed US official had been quoted by the media as saying that nearly 10 military trainers were back in Pakistan as a sign of a thaw in the bilateral relationship.
The official said US special forces soldiers had been sent to a training site near Peshawar, where they will instruct trainers from Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency warfare.
Pakistan had sought the withdrawal of US trainers after the NATO air strike hit two of its border posts in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan in November.
“What has happened in just the last week or so has been the return of a couple liaison officers from Regional Command-East. They’re at the Bagram in eastern Afghanistan.
“A couple of liaison officers have returned to the area around Peshawar to coordinate and continue to liaise with the 11th Corps headquarters there of the Pakistani military,” Kirby said.
