The US is conducting a military aid mission...
Ahead of the major hit of floods in parts of Pakistan, the United States administration is conducting a military aid mission to flood-devastated Pakistan, the US armed forces' Central Command said Friday.
In a statement, spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said, "CENTCOM is sending an assessment team to Islamabad to determine what potential support DoD (the US Department of Defense) can provide... as part of the United States assistance to the flooding crisis in Pakistan."
The spokesman added that the decision followed a telephone conversation Thursday between CENTCOM commander General Erik Kurilla and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Already, the United States is the top arms supplier to Pakistan's military, but relations between the two countries are often rocky.
Despite that, back in 2011 killing in northern Pakistan by US forces of a top terror suspect, Osama bin Laden -- who had taken refuge near a military complex -- caused deep rifts between Islamabad and Washington.
However, since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan one year ago, the United States has sought to strengthen ties.
Monsoon rains have submerged a third of Pakistan, claiming at least 1,190 lives since June and unleashing powerful floods that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.
Authorities have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and strength of extreme weather events.
More than three million children are at risk in Pakistan following the devastating floods, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement.
"More than three million children need humanitarian assistance and are at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition due to the most severe flooding in Pakistan's recent history," the release said.
The heavy monsoon rains, which began in mid-July 2022, are drastic, affecting 33 million people in 116 districts across the country, with 66 neighborhoods being hardest hit.
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