US gives aid to Pakistan in effort to curb extremists

Grace Hammond

THE United States has laid out a five-year, $2bn (1.28bn) military aid package for Pakistan as it pressed the Islamabad government to step up the fight against extremists there and in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, announced the plan at the end of the latest round US-Pakistani strategic talks. The Obama administration will ask Congress for $2bn for Pakistan to purchase US-made arms, ammunition and accessories from 2012 to 2016, Clinton said.

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The new military aid replaces a similar but less valuable package that began in 2005 and expired on October 1. It will complement $7.5bn (4.78bn) in civilian assistance the administration has already committed to Pakistan over five years, some of which has been diverted to help the country deal with floods that devastated much of the country in August.

The US hopes the announcement, made by Clinton with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at her side, will reassure Pakistan of the long-term US commitment to Pakistan’s military needs. The aid also should help Pakistan bolster its efforts to go after Taliban and al-Qaida affiliates on its territory.

Although the exact terms of the deal are still being negotiated, the goal is to ramp up US military aid to Pakistan incrementally over the five-year period.

The announcement was made after bomb attacks in north-western Pakistan killed nine people, including three worshippers at a mosque and a group of soldiers travelling through an area the army pounded in a months-long offensive earlier this year.

The attacks were seen by commentators as confirming the fragility of the military’s gains in its offensives against al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents along the border with Afghanistan.