{"id":20436,"date":"2025-06-12T03:01:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T03:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=20436"},"modified":"2025-06-12T03:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T03:01:42","slug":"us-centcom-chief-lauds-phenomenal-partner-pakistan-in-counter-terrorism-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=20436","title":{"rendered":"US Centcom chief lauds \u2018phenomenal partner\u2019 Pakistan in counter-terrorism efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US
US Centcom commander Army General Michael Kurilla in Washington DC, the US on June 10. \u2014 Screengrab via US Department of Defence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

United States Central Command (Centcom) commander Army General Michael Kurilla on Wednesday praised Pakistan as a \u201cphenomenal partner in the world of counter-terrorism\u201d, citing the nation\u2019s struggle against terrorism in Balochistan and against terrorist groups like the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan and the US reaffirmed the continuation of counter-terrorism cooperation during a dialogue<\/a> in Washington on May 10. The dialogue underscored the cooperation between the two countries in addressing the most pressing challenges to regional and global security, including the threats posed by terrorist outfits such as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and IS-K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two nations are slated to have another counter-terrorism\u00a0dialogue<\/a>\u00a0this month.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington on Tuesday, the general was asked about the situation on the Afghan border with Pakistan, where he outlined that Pakistan has apprehended several \u201chigh-value\u201d IS-K operatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailing a \u201cphenomenal partnership\u201d with Islamabad, Gen Kurilla highlighted that Pakistan has \u201cgone after ISIS Khorasan (IS-K) killing dozens of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough a relationship we have with them and providing intelligence, they have captured at least five ISIS Khorasan high-value individuals,\u201d Kurilla said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have extradited<\/a> back Jaffar, who was one of the key individuals behind the Abbey Gate bombing<\/a>,\u201d he added, referring to IS-K operative Mohammad Sharifullah, an Afghan national who was arrested by Pakistan earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen Kurilla added that he received a call from Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir after Sharifullah\u2019s arrest, recounting, \u201cHe said \u2018I\u2019ve caught him, I\u2019m willing to extradite him back to the United States, please tell the secretary of defence and the president\u2019.https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/video\/embed\/966227<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing Pakistan \u2014 with limited intelligence that we provided them \u2014 go after them using their means to do that and we\u2019re seeing an effect on ISIS Khorasan,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen Kurilla noted that there have been 1,000 terrorist attacks in \u201cthe western area\u201d of Pakistan since the start of 2024, noting that they \u201care in an active counter-terrorism fight right now\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have been a phenomenal partner in the counter-terrorism world,\u201d the Centcom chief added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing his testimony, Gen Kurilla stated that the US needs to maintain ties with both Pakistan and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to have a relationship with Pakistan and with India. I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s a binary switch that we can\u2019t have one with Pakistan if we have one with India,\u201d he argued. \u201cWe should look at the merits of the relationship for the positives that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the pair\u2019s first phone call<\/a>, where America\u2019s top diplomat expressed interest in deepening cooperation in a variety of sectors, including counter-terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the call, DPM (Deputy Prime Minister)\/FM Dar reiterated Pakistan\u2019s commitment to strengthening its partnership with the United States,\u201d the Foreign Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to the statement, Dar highlighted Pakistan\u2019s counterterrorism efforts between 2013 and 2018, with Rubio appreciating Pakistan\u2019s fight against terrorism and expressing the US\u2019s \u201cdesire to further enhance counterterrorism cooperation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an address<\/a> to the US Congress in March, US President Donald Trump spoke about Sharifullah, praising Pakistan for the arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity, and he is on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice,\u201d the US president told Congress. \u201cI want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1916524<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States Central Command (Centcom) commander Army General Michael Kurilla on Wednesday praised Pakistan as a \u201cphenomenal partner in the world of counter-terrorism\u201d, citing the nation\u2019s struggle against terrorism in Balochistan and against terrorist groups like the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K). Pakistan and the US reaffirmed the continuation of counter-terrorism cooperation during a dialogue in Washington on May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[58,19990,19991,1485,19993,105,36,19992,40,19994],"class_list":["post-20436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-america","tag-centcom","tag-central-command","tag-counter-terrorism","tag-general-michael-kurilla","tag-geopolitics-2","tag-pakistan","tag-phenomenal-partner","tag-us","tag-us-centcom-chief-lauds-phenomenal-partner-pakistan-in-counter-terrorism-efforts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20438,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20436\/revisions\/20438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}