By IANS,
Islamabad: US Special Forces were embedded with Pakistani troops for intelligence gathering and joint operations in 2009, US diplomatic cables have revealed.
Confidential US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks and obtained by Dawn newspaper throw light on new details about the activities of US forces in Pakistan.
The issue has gained heightened sensitivity in the aftermath of the CIA security contractor Raymond Davis killing two Pakistanis in Lahore and the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad that killed the Al Qaeda chief.
“We have created intelligence fusion cells with embedded US Special Forces with both SSG and Frontier Corps (Bala Hisar, Peshawar) with the Rover equipment ready to deploy,” reported the then US ambassador Anne Patterson to the State Department in May 2009.
“Through these embeds, we are assisting the Pakistanis collect and coordinate existing intelligence assets.”
At the time she noted that the US had “not been given permission to accompany the Pakistani forces on deployments as yet.”
By September, plans for the joint intelligence activities had been expanded to include army headquarters.
Meanwhile, joint operations on the ground were also in the pipeline. One previously unpublished cable describes how a deployment with US forces in Pakistani territory was planned for April 2009 before it was called off at the eleventh hour.
A number of the leaked reports reveal, however, that the US had been eager to embed American troops with Pakistanis soldiers.