Kayani says no agreement with US on drone attacks

No agreement exists between Pakistan and the US regarding drone attacks nor had such an agreement been reached upon during the regime of former president General Pervez Musharraf, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani said on Friday.
Addressing students of the National Defence University, the army chief said drone attacks were against national integrity. On the Abbottabad operation, he said the US helicopters were not visible on Pakistani radars because of their low altitude flight. “The US used stealth technology which no other country in the world possesses,” Gen Kayani said. Osama bin Laden’s guards shot down one helicopter, he said, confirming reports of bin Laden’s death.
Meanwhile, the ISPR on Friday denied a WikiLeaks report claiming that the army chief had requested the US for more drone support in year 2008. In a statement, the spokesman said in the past, there had only been sharing of technical intelligence in some areas. “No armed drone attack support has ever been asked for operations which have been conducted using own resources,” he said.
He said during the Swat-Malakand Operation in 2008-09, and South Waziristan Agency operation Rah-e-Nijat in 2009-10, outside technical support was not even asked for. “These operations were jointly conducted by the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Air Force,” the spokesman said. According to the recently released US State Department cables, General Kayani not only tacitly agreed to the controversial drone campaign against militants, in 2008 he asked Washington for “continuous Predator coverage” over the Tribal Areas.