May 2: In the Eighties, elite soldiers of Saddam Hussein had undergone training on anti-terrorism combat at the Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, sprawled across 600 acres of rugged terrain at Vairengte in North Mizoram.
A week ago, even as US-led forces were bombing Iraq to eliminate the Iraqi president, American troops landed at the exclusive training centre for a three-week-long session in jungle warfare.
The joint Indo-US army exercise — codenamed “Balance Iroquois 03-1” or “Vajra Prahar” — was cloaked in utmost secrecy from the beginning to the end on April 26. “We maintained a nice neutrality by offering training to both Iraqi and US soldiers on separate occasions,” an infantry officer at the school told The Telegraph.
A “special” press release from the public affairs office of the American consulate-general, Calcutta, said the joint exercise involved US special forces personnel and one Indian assault team from an Indian special forces battalion. It said the episode officially ended with a mass airborne drop from AN-32 aircraft, using parachutes supplied by the Indian army. In June, the US army will host a similar exercise for Indian special forces in Guam.
“Indian and American soldiers learned much from each other and reached a new level in military co-operation and camaraderie with respect to demonstrating the practical interoperability of the forces over an extended period of time,” the release said.
Sources confirmed that even as war clouds were gathering over Iraq, a few specially chosen US marines and special forces were despatched to Vairengte to update their skill in counter-insurgency. A senior officer in the school at Vairengte said this evening that at least a dozen small groups of US armymen have undergone training in this school during the past few years.