US providing Predator intelligence to Pakistan offensive

Dawn:

The US military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from unmanned aircraft to the Pakistani army to assist it in its week-old offensive in South Waziristan, according to the Los Angeles Times.

US officials who spoke to the newspaper said this was ‘the deepest American involvement yet in a Pakistani military campaign’.

US Air Force Predators were providing overhead video — and possibly radio intercepts — for the Pakistani campaign, the daily said on Friday.

Pakistan combines the data with the information it receives from its sources on the ground in locating militant hideouts in the region.

‘Pakistan has superior human intelligence on the ground, where its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence has cultivated networks of informants among militant groups. But the government has a limited ability to intercept cell phone calls and other transmissions,’ the Times noted.

‘Any type of imagery would be of use to the Pakistanis, either from Predator or other means,’ a senior US Defence official told the newspaper.

In particular, Pakistan has sought intelligence ‘on locations of the enemy, re-supply routes, re-supply activity . . . in real time.’

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It is not too surprising other than that both sides have in the past denied such cooperation. It certainly make sense in the context of the operation and the desire of both the US and Pakistan to eliminate as many of the Taliban religious bigots as possible.