US-Pakistan cooperation

Months after the spectacle of President Musharraf's disappearance from the Pakistani political scene, it appears that US-Pakistani cooperation in the war on Islamic extremists has greatly improved.

On November 17th, the AP reported

Pakistani security forces escorted container trucks and oil tankers through the Khyber Pass on Monday after Pakistan reopened the supply route critical to transporting supplies to NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan suspended the vehicles from the passageway for a security review last week after militants hijacked several trucks whose load included Humvees bound for the U.S.-led coalition.

On Monday, a dozen or so paramilitary pickups from the paramilitary Frontier Corps joined a convoy of around 30 vehicles as part of new security measures. The escort trucks bore rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Earlier, the transport trucks had little or no security.

A day earlier, an

...ISAF base received two separate rocket attacks from a location within Pakistan. Following the second attack, ISAF soldiers were able to identify the origin of the enemy rocket launches. Upon positive identification, ISAF coordinated with the Pakistan military and fired a total of 20 artillery rounds on the enemy location. The artillery fire caused a secondary explosion at the rocket launch site, which indicates additional munitions in the location.

ISAF and Pakistani soldiers observed all fired artillery rounds. The Pakistan soldiers assured ISAF that they would engage any insurgents attempting to flee deeper into Pakistan.

Four days later, on November 20th, a US-Afghan outpost on the border with Pakistan was also attacked by rocket fire from Pakistan. This time Pakistans involvement was more direct.

The Pakistani military then launched a mortar strike on the insurgents’ firing location inside Pakistan.

And a new phase of Operation Lionheart is underway with full Pakistani involvement

At least 24 Taliban fighters – including 11 foreigners and one local commander – were killed in the military operation in Bajaur on Thursday as warplanes pounded Taliban positions in Swat, killing 20 fighters using a school building in Matta area, according to official sources, local residents and AFP.

Also, a private TV channel reported on Thursday that security forces have completed the deployment of Frontier Corps (FC) contingents in Mohmand, and a full-scale military operation in the agency is likely after the federal government’s approval....

NATO spokesman: NATO’s spokesman in Kabul, Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, said co-ordination with Pakistan had been improving, and the Pakistani military was routinely helping NATO forces direct fire in retaliation to attacks from inside Pakistan, Reuters reported. ‘Operation Lionheart’ was aimed at co-ordinating operations with Pakistani forces, he added.

A coordinated effort involving NATO, Afghanistan and Pakistan is what is needed to destroy al Qaeda and Taliban bases, training camps, staging areas and logistics in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

For a while after the Pakistan elections it seemed we would get less cooperation, the opposite is turing out to be the actual situation.

Let's hope this continues.