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ISLAMABAD: Documents released by Wikileaks indicate that Pakistan's political leadership has allegedly been in agreement with US drone attacks.
The leaked cables quote former US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson as saying that the country’s political leadership approved the strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions.
Patterson’s cable states: Malik suggested we hold off alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation. The PM brushed aside Rehman’s remarks and said "I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it."
Although publicly Pakistani officials oppose the attacks, this particular cable shows they allegedly back them in private.
Pakistan's Foreign Office has repeatedly said there is no justification for the drone strikes, describing them as “counter-productive” and a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
The embassy cables also revealed that small teams of US special forces soldiers were allegedly secretly embedded with Pakistan’s military forces in the tribal regions, helping to hunt down Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and co-ordinate drone strikes in the area.
"The Pakistani Army has for just the second time approved deployment of US special operation elements to support Pakistani military operations. The first deployment, with SOC(FWD)-PAK elements embedded with the Frontier Corps in XXXXXXXXXXXX (location blocked), occurred in September (reftel). Previously, the Pakistani military leadership adamantly opposed letting us embed our special operations personnel with their military forces," one of the cables' summary stated.
