RAWALPINDI   -   The First Pakistan-KSA ‘Joint Special Forces Exer­cise AL BATTAR-I’ began on Wednesday with opening ceremony at Cherat. The special forces of Pakistan and Kingdom of Saudi Ara­bia (KSA) are participating in the two-week long exer­cise, an Inter-Services Pub­lic Relations (ISPR) news release said. The exercise is aimed at further harness­ing the historic military to military relations between the two 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 national anthems of both countries were played at start of the ceremony. Se­nior officials from the two armed forces were pres­ent on the occasion.