New Delhi: With Islamabad showing no signs of relenting on infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has given a go ahead to raising of four more battalions of Special Forces, who would be trained in Israel for specialised counter insurgency strikes.

The proposal for raising these new elite commando forces, especially in "irregular warfare", has been cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and additional funds have been allocated for it, highly placed Army officials said.

The officers and men from these newly raised battalions would be sent to Israel for special anti-insurgency warfare training, the officials said.

A high-level defence ministry delegation is scheduled to visit Israel next week as part of the moves to clear the decks for training of special forces.

India and Israel recently signed a $ 30 million agreement to arm these special forces with Israeli Tavros light weapons systems. The system is said to be the most advanced in contemporary warfare.

India already has a Brigade Strength Special Forces comprising four battalions, one Para Commando, nine Para Commandos, 10 Para Commandos and 21st Para Commandos. While one Para Commandos, with deep sea divers in its ranks, specialises in anti-hijacking and hostage crises, the nine Para, with experienced mountaineers, is dedicated mountain guerrilla force. The 10 Para is for desert operations and the 21st was raised recently for jungle terrain.

The Army brass was tight lipped about the role of the newly raised special forces, which would make India only the fifth country in the world, to have Division Strength Special Forces after United States, Russia, China and UK.

However, sources said the newly raised forces specially trained in high risk hit-and- run tactics would be assigned to target militants staging points near the line of control (LoC) and seek and destroy mercenary ammunition dumps near the border and in hinterland in Jammu and Kashmir.

The government is understood to be giving top priority to beef up operational warfare in the context of the lessons learnt from year-long operation 'Parikrama'.

The government's move assumes significance in view of Pakistan's continued refusal to undertake measures to defuse infiltration across the LoC.

The CCS, sources said had cleared all major armed forces operational acquisitions, while keeping those related to training like the advance jet trainer deal for the Indian Air Force (IAF) on the backburner.

The newly raised Special Forces would be directly put under the control of Northern Army commander to be used for specialised operations.

PTI