Pakistan expels British military training teams

The move is believed to be related to the fallout from the covert US raid in which Osama bin Laden was killed last month.

Following the al-Qaida chief’s death, Pakistan sent home at least 120 US military trainers, in an expression of the country’s anger over the American operation, which was kept secret from the Pakistani government.

Relations between Pakistan and the UK tend to be less turbulent than with the US, but the Pakistani army has been under pressure to reassert the country’s sovereignty following the May 2 raid in which bin Laden was shot dead in Abbottabad, an army town not far from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

“The UK has been asked to withdraw some of its training support teams on a temporary basis by the Pakistan government in response to security concerns,” said British Embassy spokesman George Sherriff.

“The training teams will continue their own training and will be ready to redeploy at the first possible opportunity.”

The withdrawal was first reported on Sunday amid claims that at least 18 British military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, had been expelled.