The US military has taken the unprecedented step of sharing with Pakistan surveillance data collected by its drones flying along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, US media reported Thursday. But "it is not clear" whether that co-operation would continue, The New York Times said, citing US military officials who indicated that Pakistan had abruptly stopped requesting non-combat surveillance missions carried out by US drones along the border in early April.
The officials also refuted a Los Angeles Times report Wednesday that Pakistan had been given joint control of armed US Predator drones, allowing them for the first time to venture beyond the Afghan border into Pakistan. CIA Predators are regularly flown covertly in Pakistan, targeting al Qaeda militants. But The New York Times said no plans were underway for the US military to join the CIA in its armed drones program inside Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari acknowledged Wednesday that Islamabad had asked Washington for "ownership" of US drones carrying out attacks in Pakistan. Zardari, speaking in London, said Pakistan was "negotiating terms" with the United States over the drones, which have killed over 360 people in about 37 attacks since August 2008.
Pakistan says the strikes violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment in the nuclear-armed nation. US intelligence operatives, however, are opposed to joint operations with Pakistan's intelligence services, pointing to how information shared with Pakistan several years ago about planned Predator attacks had been leaked to militants.
"We're going after terrorists plotting directly against the United States and its interests," a US counterterrorism official told the Times. "Nobody wants to gamble with those kinds of targets. We tried a joint approach before, and it didn't work. Those are facts that can't be ignored."
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