Pakistan blames U.S. for 'cowardly' air strike that killed 11 soldiers

[Praxius]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/06/11/pakistan-usattack.html

Pakistan said a U.S. air strike killed 11 of its soldiers along the border with Afghanistan late Tuesday, and warned that the attack undermined co-operation with Washington in anti-Taliban operations.

The soldiers were killed at a border post in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province, a Pakistani security official said.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that three of their aircraft launched about a dozen bombs into Pakistan after militants attacked coalition forces in a wooded area near a frontier checkpoint.

The strikes had "been previously co-ordinated with Pakistan," said a U.S. military statement that didn't mention Pakistani casualties. The incident was being investigated, the U.S. officials said.

The Pakistani army said the attack that killed its soldiers was "a completely unprovoked and cowardly attack" which "hit at the very basis of co-operation" between Pakistan and the United States in the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan.

The two countries have been allies since shortly after the Sept.11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

In the statement issued at Bagram airbase near Kabul, U.S. forces said they used unmanned drones to follow the insurgents, then fired on them. It was not clear if the jets crossed into Pakistan's airspace.

The U.S. has used remotely piloted drones to launch a number of attacks on targets in Afghanistan and along its rugged border with Pakistan, which refuses to allow foreign military operations on its soil.

The harsh mountain region along the Afghan-Pakistani border is difficult for journalists to access and there are conflicting reports about the fighting before the air strike, with Afghan sources accusing Pakistani troops of helping Taliban militants infiltrate from their side of the border.

Officials in Pakistan said fighting broke out Tuesday after Afghan and U.S. soldiers tried to set up a mountaintop post in a contested part of the lawless frontier and Pakistani security forces told them to withdraw.

The U.S. military statement issued Wednesday said coalition soldiers were engaged by "anti-Afghan forces" Tuesday and called in air and artillery support.

Local tribesman Damagh Khan Mohmand said Afghan soldiers had moved into the area around Speena Sooka, or White Peak, on Monday evening and were supported by foreign troops.

Khan Mohmand told journalists in Pakistan that tribesmen traded fire with the Afghan and foreign forces, and said Pakistani security forces also opened fire, although that has been disputed by the military.
Rift growing in alliance: analysts

The Associated Press quotes a Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Umar, as saying militants were resisting an incursion by Afghan and NATO troops into Pakistani territory.

State-run Pakistan Television reported Afghan and foreign forces had tried to set up a military post in the area, and fought with local Pakistani tribesmen.

Pakistan-based analysts say relations with Washington are at a low ebb, as the country's new civilian government reassesses its support for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and its implications for relations with tribal and Islamist forces in Pakistan.

Afghan, NATO, and U.S. officials have separately warned that growing lawlessness in the Pakistani border region could hamper operations and increase violence in Afghanistan. Recent peace agreements between Paksitani authorities and border-based militant groups could also destabilize the Afghan situation, officials have warned.

 

[Praxius]

Additional Information:

Pakistan condemns U.S. air strike on border
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080611/pakistan_us_080611/20080611?hub=World

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- U.S.-led coalition forces along the volatile Afghan border launched an air strike that killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops, Pakistan's army said Wednesday. The military condemned it as an act of aggression that "hit at the very basis of co-operation'' in the war on terrorism.

The incident late Tuesday followed a reported clash between Afghan forces and Taliban militants in the same area. The Taliban said eight of its fighters died in the skirmish.

The Pakistani army launched a strong protest and reserved "the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression,'' the military said in a statement. The statement said the clash in the Mohmand tribal region "had hit at the very basis of co-operation'' between the two allies in the war on terror.

The U.S. military declined to comment.

The lawless and remote mountain region is difficult for journalists to access and there were conflicting reports over the sequence of events and how many died in the fighting. The region is believed to be used by pro-Taliban militants as a launch pad for attacks into Afghanistan.

That infiltration is a constant source of tension in the counterrorism alliance. Pakistan has deployed tens of thousands of troops to police its tribal regions, but western and Afghan officials say that has not deterred militants. Afghanistan often accuses Pakistan of abetting the Taliban, whose hardline regime it supported until its ouster in 2001.

Pakistani officials said the fighting broke out Tuesday after Afghan troops tried to set up a mountaintop post in a contested part of the lawless frontier and Pakistani security forces told them to withdraw.

Local tribesman Damagh Khan Mohmand said the Afghan forces had moved into the area around Speena Sooka, or White Peak, on Monday evening and were supported by foreign troops. There was no confirmation of that from the U.S.-led coalition or NATO security force in Afghanistan.

Khan Mohmand said tribesmen traded fire with the Afghan and foreign forces, and said Pakistani security forces also opened fire _ although the military disputed that.

The army said the coalition air strike hit a post of the paramilitary Frontier Corps and was a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act.''

Khan Mohmand said he saw drones and that two aircraft had bombed several locations.
Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for an umbrella group of Pakistani Taliban, said militants had resisted an incursion into Pakistan.

He said between 60 and 100 of its fighters attacked NATO and Afghan army troops who had set up bunkers and tents on Pakistani soil. He claimed up to 40 Afghan troops were killed, several captured and that a NATO helicopter was shot down. Eight Taliban troops also died in the fighting, he said.

None of his claims could be independently confirmed.

State-run Pakistan Television reported that Afghan and foreign forces had tried to set up a military post and were resisted by tribesmen. A NATO airstrike then struck a Pakistani military post, PTV said.

On Wednesday, two helicopters brought the bodies of 11 troops killed and another 13 soldiers wounded in the fighting to Peshawar, the main city in northwestern Pakistan, a military intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to comment to the media. Witnesses said seven ambulances took the casualties to a military hospital in the city.

Officials in Afghanistan declined comment.

NATO in Afghanistan referred inquiries to the U.S. military whose spokeswoman, Lt.-Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, referred calls on reports of an air strike to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. The embassy also declined comment. The Afghan Ministry of Defence said it had no information on the incident.

The U.S. has in the past used unmanned drones to attack suspected militants inside Pakistan.

Pakistan does not allow foreign troops to conduct military operations on its territory. It says aerial attacks launched from Afghanistan are a violation of its sovereignty.

 

[lone wolf]

Prince Sianouk said Cambodia does not allow foreign troops to conduct military operations on its territory....

In this case, the territory is claimed by Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sorta sucks to get drawn into property line disputes too....

 

[Risus]

It certainly doesn't surprise me that the bungling US military would be involved in killing inocents. It has a familiar ring to it, ie friendly fire incidents....

 

[talloola]

Whatever happens to these pilots and crew who make these horrendous errors, and
kill innocent people, or other people's military.

 

[Praxius]

Whatever happens to these pilots and crew who make these horrendous errors, and
kill innocent people, or other people's military.

Now it's a faceless operator on a computer who kills these people.... and when the media gets ahold of the story, it's just an unmanned drone, so there's no real name released as to who was responsible..... of course nobody thinks to ask who was the jerkwad on the computer operating the UAV that killed their own "Allies."

And of course, the Afghan and the US government refused to make a comment about the incident..... so it did occur, or they would have argued the facts presented.

So? WTF we're they doing there?

 

[thomaska]

And then the US released video from the drones of the bad guys firing on Coalition troops. But that story just isn't as fun to post is it? :roll:

edit: and yes of course it was a fake video

 

[lone wolf]

When both sides claim the territory, how can there be any distinction to who is in the clear? It about sums up the futility of the whole mess when everything is defined by tribal territories and lines drawn in the sand....

 

[gerryh]

The Afghanis, Nato, and Pakistani's are supposed to be allies in the fight against the Taliban and terrorists. My question isn't why the americans ended up killing Pakistani's but why the Pakistani's were firing on THIER allies when they were hunting Taliban, NOT invading Pakistan.

 

[Praxius]

And then the US released video from the drones of the bad guys firing on Coalition troops. But that story just isn't as fun to post is it? :roll:

edit: and yes of course it was a fake video

The bad guys huh? Nobody is disputing the conflict didn't happen, even above the Pakistan officials claimed they opened fire on Afghan and Forign troops, because they were in their disputed territory, where US and Afghan forces shouldn't have been in the first place, AKA: Defence.... then they got bombs dropped on their heads by their own allies.... so of course they're going to call it a cowardly act and that it will screw with their relations with the US and Afghanistan. They agreed to patrol their territories and for us and Afghanistan to stay the hell out or they won't help anymore..... they incurred onto their area as they claim, and thus this crap occured.

If they are helping the Taliban, then perhaps something should be done about that, but until you identify your ally as an enemy, you don't go and attack your allies..... otherwise you're not going to have any, because nobody can trust you.

 

[thomaska]

The bad guys huh? Nobody is disputing the conflict didn't happen, even above the Pakistan officials claimed they opened fire on Afghan and Forign troops, because they were in their disputed territory, where US and Afghan forces shouldn't have been in the first place, AKA: Defence.... then they got bombs dropped on their heads by their own allies.... so of course they're going to call it a cowardly act and that it will screw with their relations with the US and Afghanistan. They agreed to patrol their territories and for us and Afghanistan to stay the hell out or they won't help anymore..... they incurred onto their area as they claim, and thus this crap occured.

If they are helping the Taliban, then perhaps something should be done about that, but until you identify your ally as an enemy, you don't go and attack your allies..... otherwise you're not going to have any, because nobody can trust you.

Relations...pfft.

They called it cowardly because they tacitly support the Taliban, and every other Koran thumping muzzie around.

Maybe everyone learned a lesson here

Taliban: Oh ****, the Americans will drop the bombs even if we hide under Pakistani skirts

Pakistan: Oh ****, do I have Taliban under my skirt again?

 

[Praxius]

Yeah whatever.... nice assumptions....

In related news:

This image taken from U.S. military surveillance video shows an explosion during a skirmish near a Pakistani border post.

U.S. releases video of clash near Pakistan border post
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...611/pakistan_border_080612/20080612?hub=World

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan released footage Thursday of a skirmish with militants that Pakistan claims resulted in a deadly air strike on one of its border posts.

Pakistan says 11 of its troops died when a bomb fell on the Gorparai post in the Mohmand frontier region on Tuesday. It lodged a strong diplomatic protest and called the strike a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act.''

But Pakistani and U.S. officials have given widely differing accounts of an event that threatens to further sour relations between key allies in Washington's war on terror.

To support its version, the coalition on Thursday took the unusual step of releasing excerpts of a video shot by a surveillance drone circling above the mountainous battle zone.

The grainy, monochrome images show about a half-dozen men firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from a ridge at coalition troops off camera in the valley below.

According to the voiceover, the ridge is in Afghanistan's Kunar province, about 200 metres from the Pakistan border and close to the Gorparai checkpoint.

Neither the checkpoint nor any other structures are visible in the video excerpts.

The voiceover says the coalition forces were on a reconnaissance mission and returned fire in a bid to break contact and move to a point where a helicopter could pluck them to safety.

It shows the "anti-Afghan militants'' moving to a position identified as inside Pakistan and the impact of a bomb which the voiceover says killed two of them.

The survivors then fled into a ravine, where three more bombs were dropped, nearly three hours after the clash began. The voiceover said all the militants were killed.

One of the bombs fell off screen, and U.S. officials said about a dozen bombs were dropped in all.

On Wednesday, U.S. diplomats offered apologies for the reported casualties.

But the Pentagon insisted that the drone footage of the bombings showed they hit their intended targets.

U.S. Defence Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said it was too early to know whether the strike killed 11 Pakistani troops.

"Every indication we have is that this was a legitimate strike against forces that had attacked members of the coalition,'' he said.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj.-Gen. Athar Abbas gave a different account.

Abbas said the fighting broke out after Afghan government soldiers who had occupied a mountaintop position in a disputed border zone Monday acceded to a Pakistan request to withdraw.

"They were on their way back and they were attacked by insurgents in their own territory,'' Abbas said.

He said the Afghans then called in coalition air strikes, which hit the Pakistani Frontier Corps post across the border.

The anti-terror alliance with Washington is already unpopular among Pakistanis, whose newly elected civilian government is negotiating with some militants in hopes of curbing a surge in violence. Western officials fear peace deals could give more space for Taliban and al Qaeda militants to operate.

 

[Risus]

Don't the yankees realize they are not wanted? They should just pack up and go home. The world would be a better place.

 

[Just the Facts]

Yeah we're in Afghanistan because we've lost that loving feeling.