Pakistani Forces Making ‘Good Progress’ in Khyber Pass Offensive

American Forces Press Service ^ | Gerry J. Gilmore

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2, 2009 – The Pakistani military is making good progress against militants who have threatened a major supply route running from Pakistan into Afghanistan, U.S. officials said here today.

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan are “cautiously optimistic” regarding recent news reports that cite Pakistani forces’ success in driving militants away from the Khyber Pass region, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman Army Col. Jerry O’Hara said in a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service today.

Pakistani forces launched an offensive Dec. 30 to target militants who, in recent weeks, have attacked some supply convoys that transit the Khyber Pass.

That supply route runs hundreds of miles from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan and then through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The Khyber Pass route provides about 75 percent of the U.S. supplies to troops in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military actions directed against militants who operate in the Khyber Pass area are providing “security of the Peshawar [supply] terminals and our supply lines,” O’Hara said.

Pakistan’s operations in the Khyber Pass region are achieving success, Washington-based U.S. State Department spokesman Fred Lash said today during a phone interview with American Forces Press Service.

“We certainly welcome that kind of cooperation we’re seeing,” Lash said, noting he understands that Pakistani forces “are making good progress” against the militants.

The United States appreciates Pakistan’s actions against militants operating along the border with Afghanistan, Lash said, as well as Pakistan’s arrests of suspects following the November terrorist attack on Mumbai, India.

“We welcome the full and transparent cooperation of Pakistan in all matters like this,” Lash said. “Not only in trying to ferret out the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, but actions such as this in the Khyber-Pass region just shows they are cooperating more in a lot of ways.”

The Khyber Pass supply route was temporarily closed at the start of the Pakistani offensive, but U.S. Forces Afghanistan and NATO International Security Force officials had noted in a recent joint statement that closure of the supply route had “no immediate impact on our ability to provide supplies to the troops” in Afghanistan. Due to the offensive’s success, the Khyber Pass route was reopened today, according to news reports.

Meanwhile, U.S. military officials have been looking for other supply-route options. U.S. Transportation Command’s top officer, Air Force Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, traveled to several Central Asian countries in November to explore options for establishing added supply routes for Afghanistan operations, Transcom spokeswoman Cynthia Bauer said Dec. 31 during a telephone interview with American Forces Press Service. Transcom is based at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

“We’ve been looking at alternate distribution routes for a while,” Bauer said.

Related Sites:
U.S. Forces Afghanistan
U.S. State Department

Related Articles:
U.S. Seeks More Supply Routes for Afghanistan
Chairman Cites Importance of U.S.-Pakistan Relationship
Pakistan’s Anti-terror Offensive Assists Afghan War Aims, Gates Says
Afghan Supply Line Still Viable Despite Breaches, Pentagon Official Says

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[yarddog]

Does anyone remember an old TV series called “King of the Khyber Rifles”? I think it was based on a movie which was based on a book.

[SandRat]

Director:Henry King

Writers:Ivan Goff (screenplay) and
Ben Roberts (screenplay) ...
Writing credits
Ivan Goff (screenplay) and
Ben Roberts (screenplay)
Harry Kleiner (story)
Talbot Mundy (novel)

Tyrone Power ... Capt. Alan King
Terry Moore ... Susan Maitland
Michael Rennie ... Brig. Gen. J. R. Maitland
John Justin ... Lt. Geoffrey Heath
Guy Rolfe ... Karram Khan
Richard Wyler ... Lt. Ben Baird (as Richard Stapley)
Murray Matheson ... Maj. Ian MacAllister
Frank DeKova ... Ali Nur (as Frank de Kova)
Argentina Brunetti ... Lali
Sujata ... Native Dancer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohinder Bedi ... Servant (uncredited)
Dorothy Bonnefin ... Bit Role (uncredited)
Harry Carter ... Afridi Horseman (uncredited)
Maurice Colbourne ... Hamid Bahri (uncredited)
David Cota ... Singer (uncredited)
Tom Cound ... Capt. Rogers (uncredited)
Karam Dhaliwal ... Pal-Singh (uncredited)
John Farrow ... Cpl. Stuart (uncredited)
Naji Gabbay ... Servant (uncredited)
Yeghishe Harout ... Tribal Chieftain (uncredited)
Ramsay Hill ... Cavalry Officer (uncredited)
Aram Katcher ... Napur (uncredited)
George Keymas ... Afridi Horseman (uncredited)
Hassan Khayyam ... Mullah (uncredited)
George Khoury ... Afridi Horseman (uncredited)
Frank Lackteen ... Ahmed (uncredited)
Alan Lee ... Ishmael, Gen. Maitland’s punkawallah (uncredited)
Lal Chand Mehra ... Tribal Chieftain (uncredited)
Alberto Morin ... Rahim Bey (uncredited)
Gavin Muir ... Maj. Lee, doctor (uncredited)
Richard Peel ... Sgt. Fowler (uncredited)
Joe Sawaya ... Tribal Chieftain (uncredited)
Gilchrist Stuart ... Officer of the Week (uncredited)
Aly Wassil ... Raschild (uncredited)
Patrick Whyte ... Lt. White (uncredited)
Billy Wilkerson ... Afridi Horseman (uncredited)

Release Date:22 December 1953 (USA)
Genre:Adventure | Drama | Romance
Tagline:GREAT ADVENTURE OF INDIA!

Plot:A half-caste British officer in 19th-century India battles the prejudices of both his Army colleagues and the local populace while trying to help put down a rebellion led by a greedy local ruler.

Freshly arrived Sandhurst-trained Captain Alan King, better versed in Pashtun then any of the veterans and born locally as army brat, survives an attack on his escort to his Northwest Frontier province garrison near the Khyber pass because of Ahmed, a native Afridi deserter from the Muslim fanatic rebel Karram Khan’s forces. As soon as his fellow officers learn his mother was a native Muslim which got his parents disowned even by their own families, he falls prey to stubborn prejudiced discrimination, Lieutenant Geoffrey Heath even moves out of their quarters, except from half-Irish Lt. Ben Baird. Brigadier general J. R. Maitland, whose policy is full equality among whites, learns King knew Kurrum Khan as a boy and charges him with training and commanding native cavalry, which comes along fine. The general’s egalitarian daughter Susan Maitland takes a fancy to King, even falls in love but the general decides to send her safely home to England after a kidnapped attempt when King saved her. King volunteers to take out Khurram Khan, the only man who can bring the normally dived local tribes together in revolt, pretending to have deserted...

[SunkenCiv]

Pakistan closes US supply route to hit militants
ap | 12/30/08 | By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer Riaz Khan
Posted on 12/30/2008 7:27:47 PM PST by Flavius
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2156514/posts

[Clive]

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