US troops in Tarbela -Syed Saleem Shahzad

Earlier, US joint chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen confirmed Asia Times Online's report that American bases would be established in Tarbella, 20 kilometers from Islamabad to train Pakistani troops and to take part in operations in the tribal areas.

According to an interview in the Los Angeles Times, Mullen said the primary stumbling block had been that Pakistan had not been able to build a training site near Peshawar quickly enough. The two sides had therefore agreed to use an alternative base at Tarbella. (See The gloves are off in Pakistan Asia Times Online, September 23, 2008.)

Tarbella houses the brigade headquarters of Pakistan's Special Operations Task Force. Recently, 300 American officials landed at the facility with the official designation of a "training advisory group", according to documents seen by Asia Times Online. However, high-level contacts claim this is not as simple as a training program.

In the mid-1990s, during the government of Nawaz Sharif, a special US Central Intelligence Agency unit was based at the same facility, tasked with catching Osama bin Laden. They left after Pervez Musharraf came to power in a coup in 1999.

Now, the US has bought a huge plot of land at Tarbella, several square kilometers, according to sources directly handling the project. Recently, 20 large containers arrived at the facility. They were handled by the Americans, who did not allow any Pakistani officials to inspect them. Given the size of the containers, it is believed they contain special arms and ammunition and even tanks and armored vehicles - and certainly have nothing to do with any training program.