Report: More Special Forces to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Special Forces are expected to expand their presence in Pakistan to train anti-terror units there starting next year, a Washington Post column said.

Post columnist William M. Arkin, quoting defense officials involved in the planning, wrote the expansion will be part of an effort to train and support indigenous counterinsurgency forces and clandestine counter-terrorism units.

"These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the U.S. military and for U.S.-Pakistan relations," the report said.

Arkin wrote the United States had used Pakistani bases for its operations in Afghanistan but left them once the Taliban regime was deposed. But of late, the U.S. military has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani military to control its borders or the tribal areas, leading to instability in those areas, the column said.

The United States now has an agreement for the Special Forces and the first personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan early next year, the report said.

The development comes as Pakistan has been augmenting its own forces to fight rising violence in the tribal areas.