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| Pakistan rout cut-off costs billions of dollars: Pentagon |
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In an 82-page letter to congressional defense committees, the Pentagon requested “reprogramming” $8.2 billion in funds previously approved to finance more urgent priorities, officials said, AFP reported.
There were “some unanticipated costs that we just didn’t foresee,” spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters.
It remained unclear what programs in the defense budget would receive less funding as a result.
There were "some unanticipated costs that we just didn't foresee," Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters at a press conference.
He added that a large portion of the requested fund was due to the expenditures "associated with the extended closure of the ground lines of communication" in Pakistan.
Pakistan had been the main supply route for U.S.-led forces occupying Afghanistan from October 2001 to November 2011.
Islamabad closed the border crossings used to transfer U.S.-led NATO supplies to Afghanistan in November 2011, after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in U.S.-led airstrikes on two checkpoints on the Afghan border.
Last month, NATO reached agreements with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to allow the Western military alliance to transport vehicles and other military hardware from Afghanistan.
NATO previously made an agreement with Russia on an exit route, permitting the alliance to send tens of thousands of vehicles and supplies from Afghanistan to Europe later this year.
Yet the Pentagon has argued that the additional funds are necessary. “Without this funding the Army runs the risk of an interruption in the flow of supplies, subsistence and mail to deployed war fighters,” read the request sent to the Congress.
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