The United States has quietly shipped substantial military equipment in recent months to aid Pakistan's fight against militants, a leading US newspaper reported Thursday. The rushed US supply, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, includes troop transport helicopters, spare parts, night vision goggles, body armour and eavesdropping equipment, the New York Times said, citing senior American and Pakistani officials.
The help, meant for both Pakistan's spring offensive in the Swat valley and the current operation in South Waziristan, has come despite Pakistan's efforts to downplay America's role in its fight against the Taliban, al Qaeda and other terror groups, the officials told the newspaper.
The report said additional US military surveillance drones are providing video images and target information to Pakistani ground commanders. The Pentagon also has quietly provided the Pakistani Air Force with high-resolution, infrared sensors to guide the F-16 warplanes' bomb attacks on militants' strongholds in South Waziristan.
In other areas, an American adviser told the Times, the United States in the past eight months had increased to about 150 the number of its Special Forces soldiers and support personnel to train and advise the Pakistani army and paramilitary troops but the US soldiers were not involved in the combat operations.
These developments, although widely known, are not officially disclosed because of the deep-seated anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and to prevent the militants from using them for propaganda purposes, the report said. It is difficult to determine the effectiveness of US assistance in the military operations, the newspaper said.
The increasing American role in shoring up the Pakistani military's counterinsurgency abilities comes as the Obama administration debates how much of a troop commitment to make in neighbouring Afghanistan. It also takes place as Taliban attacks are spreading into Pakistani cities.
It is unclear whether Pakistani authorities are using any of the sophisticated surveillance equipment to combat the urban terrorism. In the past year, the paper said, the Defence Department had significantly increased the shipment of military equipment to Pakistan to combat the increasingly violent insurgency.
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