TBILISI. May 20 (Interfax-AVN) - Seventy military instructors who arrived in Tbilisi on Sunday from a U.S. base in Germany will starting training Georgian anti-terrorist units on May 27, a spokesman for the republic's Defense Ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency.
"The instructors will study conditions of their work in Georgian army units for a week. At first the Americans are going to train a group of officers from the Georgian General Staff, as well as commanders of anti-terrorist units," the spokesman said.
Head of the U.S. instructors group Colonel Robert Woltmeyer said the initial two-month stage of the U.S. assistance program envisaged the training of some 100 officers of the General Staff and commanders of future anti-terror forces units.
According to him, the main stage of the U.S. program will start in August, when personnel of four battalions and one mechanized company will start practicing tactics of actions in anti- terrorist operations and get down to range practice.
The colonel stressed that the total number of military instructors would not exceed 150 and their rotation would have several stages. The main part of the training will take place in mountains and forests, but some missions are going to be accomplished in populated localities.
According to the spokesman, the Pentagon have allocated USD64m for the program's implementation.