Pakistan orders US Special Forces trainers to leave

Confidential American diplomatic cables obtained by Pakistan's <i>Dawn</i> daily reveal new details about the activities of U.S. forces on the ground in Pakistan, an issue that has gained heightened sensitivity in the aftermath of the Raymond Davis incident in Lahore and the American raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.

The reports reveal that U.S. special operations forces were embedded with Pakistani troops for intelligence gathering by the summer of 2009 and deployed with them on joint operations in Pakistani territory by September that year.

"We have created Intelligence Fusion cells with embedded U.S. Special Forces with both SSG and Frontier Corps (Bala Hisar, Peshawar) with the Rover equipment ready to deploy," reported then U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson to the State Department in May 2009. "Through these embeds, we are assisting the Pakistanis to collect and coordinate existing intelligence assets."

Although the presence of U.S. trainers has been publicly acknowledged, joint operations have not. Questions about American boots on the ground inflamed public sentiment after CIA operative Raymond Davis shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore, and Senator John Kerry admitted on Monday that U.S. troops levels had been reduced in response to a Pakistan military request in the aftermath of the bin Laden operation.

A number of the leaked reports reveal, however, that the U.S. had been eager to embed American troops with Pakistani soldiers.  Press TV