India to train US 'Green Berets' in jungle warfare

Posted 07 27 2008 6:53AM

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - A contingent of US Special Forces, or Green Berets, will team up with Indian soldiers to train in jungle warfare, officials said on Saturday.

The 30-member US team will train in the army-run Counter-Insurgency Jungle Warfare School from August 2 in the rebellion-torn northeastern state of Mizoram, they said.

"The training schedule involves methodologies to tackle terrorism and low intensity conflicts," an Indian commander said on condition he was not named.

An equal number of Indian military personnel will team up with the visiting Green Berets at the school where some 250 US soldiers had been trained in the past four years.

"The US soldiers would share their experiences in tackling urban terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the Indians would pass on their tactics used in Kashmir and other parts of the northeast," he added.

Earlier this month Indian war jets left for the US to take part for the first time in multinational aerial war games codenamed the "Red Flag" beginning August 9 and billed as the world's toughest.

In September last year, New Delhi hosted naval exercises involving 29 warships and 160 fighter aircraft from the United States, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the Indian Ocean.

The exercise signalled a significant change in relations between the Indian and US militaries, whose relations were marked by mistrust during the Cold War.