Pakistan cites anti-terrorism need for F-16s

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan uses F-16 fighters to support a campaign against border militants and needs upgrades to be able to fly at night, a Pakistani official said on Friday.

The official underlined equipment needs and listed recent achievements fighting al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents ahead of a U.S. congressional hearing next week that will examine the utility of F-16s in U.S. ally Pakistan's war on terrorism.

Pakistan has flown nearly 100 missions during three weeks in August that produced some 500-550 Taliban casualties.

"These missions have been very focused, and since air power is always effective, the Taliban are very much upset about this and have retaliated," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"This campaign will last for some time," he told a small group of reporters.

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia will hold a hearing on Tuesday and grill Bush administration officials on the F-16 program with Pakistan and its utility in counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda and Taliban extremists.

The title of the hearing -- "Defeating al Qaeda's Air Force: Pakistan's F-16 Program in the Fight Against Terrorism" -- betrays lawmakers' skepticism and belief that Pakistan wants the advanced fighters to deploy against rival India, an analyst said.

In July, two senior Democratic Party lawmakers asked the Bush administration not to shift $226.5 million in U.S. counterterrorism aid to Pakistan to upgrade Pakistani F-16 fighters, saying they feared the plan diverted cash from more urgent counterterrorism efforts.

The Pakistani official said well-funded and well-armed militants had dug in with anti-aircraft guns that made it risky to use helicopters to support the army's fight against militant havens in the northwestern Baujur region.

Pakistani forces were "very much handicapped" by the lack of equipment to enable the F-16s to fly and fight at night, giving the militants the ability to regroup after daytime encounters, said the official.

"We are blind and they are moving at will," he said.

The debate takes place against the backdrop of long-standing U.S. criticism that Pakistan has not done enough to fight militants hiding in remote corners of that country and staging attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The official called this criticism the "most damaging and demoralizing thing" after the Pakistan military had suffered 1,200 killed and 3,000 disabled in fours years of fighting in border areas.

"We are in this war as much as America," he said.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)