Pakistan, Saudi Arabia hold joint special forces exercise ‘Al BATTAR-I'

Exercise aims at further harnessing historic military-to-military relations between both countries, says ISPR

The opening ceremony of first Pakistan-Saudi Arabia “Joint Special Forces Exercise AL BATTAR-I” was held at Nowshera district’s Cherat area in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, the military said.

According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan and Royal Saudi special forces are participating in the two-week-long exercise.

“The exercise is aimed at further harnessing the historic military-to-military relations between both the countries, including nurturing of joint employment concept and identifying areas of mutual interest for future military collaboration, with a view to accrue maximum benefits from each other’s experience in employment against terrorism,” the military’s media wing added.

The ISPR said that the national anthems of both countries were played at the start of the ceremony, also attended by senior officials from both the armed forces.

#ISPR

Opening ceremony of First #Pakistan-KSA “Joint Special Forces Exercise AL BATTAR-I” was held at Cherat.

Pak-Royal Saudi Special Forces are participating in two weeks long exercise.#SaudiArabia #KSA #PakistanArmy

The exercise is aimed at further harnessing the… pic.twitter.com/8iUs4aRxaW

— Pakistan Armed Forces News 🇵🇰 (@PakistanFauj) August 23, 2023

It further said that such joint military exercises between armies of both brotherly countries are aimed at enhancing existing bilateral relations and benefiting from each other’s experience.

The two brotherly nations routinely conduct such exercises. In February, joint exercise “Al-Samsaam-VIII-22” was held in K-P’s Pabbi area.

Read more: Pak-Saudi joint exercise 'Al-Samsaam-VIII-22' commences in K-P

The two-week-long joint exercise was a series of ongoing bilateral military exercises between the Saudi forces and the Pakistan Army, the ISPR said.

"The joint exercise will focus on counter-terrorism operations including cordon and search, combat patrols and dealing with IEDs," it added.

In December, a joint military counter-IED (improvised explosive device) exercise, Al-Kassah-III, also commenced between the two countries at King Khalid Military City Hafar Al-Batin in Saudi Arabia.