Geo Pakistan

US forces working with Pakistani counterpart since 2009

Updated at: 0938 PST,  Saturday, May 21, 2011  KARACHI: Wikileaks has disclosed that the U.S. special operation forces were embedded with Pakistani troops for exchange of information since summer of 2009 and they were deployed within the Pakistani territory in September for the joint operation. Following Raymond Davis case and Abbotabad operation against Osama bin Laden, several questions relating to the presence of U.S. forces in Pakistan arose. Revealed through Wikileaks, the confidential American diplomatic cable was sent by the former U.S. Ambassador, N.W. Petterson on May 2, 2009. “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 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.” “Pakistan has begun to accept intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support from the US military for COIN operations,” Ms Patterson wrote. “In addition … intelligence fusion centers” had been established “at the headquarters of Frontier Corps and the 11th Corps and we expect at additional sites, including GHQ and the 12th Corps in Balochistan.” In April 2009, the cell at Bala Hisar assisted with the Pakistan military operation then taking place in Lower Dir. “US Special Operations Command Force are assisting the FC at the Intelligence Fusion Cell at FC Headquarters with imagery, target packages, and operational planning,” a cable written that month reveals.