Pakistan: 24 dead in NATO helicopter attack

[Neo]

Pakistan: 24 dead in NATO helicopter attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistan on Saturday accused NATO helicopters of firing on two army checkpoints in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers, then retaliated by closing the border crossings used by the coalition to supply its troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

(The death toll was previously reported as 26.)

The incident Friday night was a major blow to already strained relations between Islamabad and U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan. It will add to perceptions in Pakistan that the American presence in the region is malevolent, and to resentment toward the weak government in Islamabad for its cooperation with Washington.

It comes a little over a year after a similar but less deadly strike, in which U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border, whom the pilots mistook for insurgents. Pakistan responded by closing the Torkham border crossing to NATO supplies for 10 days until the U.S. apologized.

On Saturday, Pakistan went further, closing both of the country's two border crossings into landlocked Afghanistan. NATO trucks about 30 percent of the non-lethal supplies used by its Afghan-based forces through Pakistan. A short stoppage will have no effect on the war effort, but it is a reminder of the leverage Pakistan has over the United States from the supply routes running through its territory.

NATO said it was an investigating an "incident" along the border.

"My most sincere and personal heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of any members of Pakistan security forces who may have been killed or injured," said Gen. John Allen, the top overall commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan in a statement.

Much of the violence in Afghanistan is carried out by insurgents that are based just across the border in Pakistan. Coalition forces are not allowed to cross the frontier to attack the militants. The militants however sometimes fire artillery and rockets across the line, reportedly from locations close to Pakistani army posts.

American officials have repeatedly accused Pakistani forces of supporting — or turning a blind eye — to militants using its territory for cross-border attacks. The border issue is the major source of tension between Islamabad and Washington, which wants to stabilize Afghanistan and withdraw its combat troops there by the end of 2014.

In a statement sent to reporters, the Pakistan military blamed NATO for Friday's attack in the Mohmand tribal area, saying the helicopters "carried out unprovoked and indiscriminate firing" but did not give figures for the dead and injured.

The attack killed 24 soldiers and wounded 14 others, said the governor of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Masood Kausar.

The helicopters attacked two checkpoints around 1,000 feet apart from each other, one of them twice, and two officers were among the dead, said a government official in Mohmand and a security official in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad had already taken an especially hard hit from the covert U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town on May 2. The Pakistanis were outraged that they were not told about the operation beforehand, and now are angered even more than before by U.S. violations of the country's sovereignty.

"Any aggression on the (army) is an aggression against Pakistan," information minister Firdous Aashiq Awan told reporters. "We will not only protest, but we will prove through certain actions that the Pakistani government cannot tolerate this."

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said the government was complaining "in the strongest terms" to NATO and the U.S.

A Pakistani customs official told The Associated Press that he received verbal orders Saturday to stop all NATO supplies from crossing the border through Torkham in either direction. The operator of a terminal at the border where NATO trucks park before they cross confirmed the closure. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Saeed Ahmad, a spokesman for security forces at the other crossing in Chaman in southwest Pakistan, said that his crossing was also blocked following orders "from higher-ups."

The U.S., Pakistan, and Afghan militaries have long wrestled with the technical difficulties of patrolling a line that in many places is disputed or poorly marked.

Friday's incident took place on the same day as a meeting between NATO's Gen. Allen and Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Islamabad to discuss border operations.

The meeting tackled "coordination, communication and procedures between the Pakistan Army, ISAF (intelligence services) and (the) Afghan Army, aimed at enhancing border control on both sides," according to a statement from the Pakistani side.

The checkpoints that were attacked had been recently set up in Mohmand's Salala village by the army. They were intended to stop Pakistani Taliban militants holed up in Afghanistan from crossing the border and staging attacks, said two local government administrators, Maqsood Hasan and Hamid Khan.

The Pakistani military has blamed Pakistani Taliban militants and their allies for killing dozens of security forces in such cross-border attacks since the summer. Pakistan has criticized Afghan and foreign forces for not doing enough to stop the attacks, which it says have originated from the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. The U.S. has largely pulled out of these provinces, leaving the militants in effective control of many areas along the border.

The Afghan government blamed Pakistan for firing hundreds of rockets into eastern Afghanistan earlier this year that killed dozens of people. The Pakistan army has denied it intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but acknowledged that several rounds fired at militants conducting cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.

The U.S. helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sept. 30 of last year took place south of Mohmand in the Kurram tribal area. A joint U.S.-Pakistan investigation found that Pakistani soldiers fired at the two U.S. helicopters prior to the attack, a move the investigation team said was likely meant to notify the aircraft of their presence after they passed into Pakistani airspace several times.

Pakistan moved swiftly after the attack to close Torkham to NATO. Suspected militants took advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks carrying NATO supplies.

Senior U.S. diplomatic and military officials eventually apologized for the attack, saying it could have been prevented with greater coordination between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan responded by reopening the border crossing.

Pakistan: 24 dead in NATO helicopter attack - CBS News

[Neo]

US stabs Pakistan in the back, again

* 24 Pakistani troops killed as NATO helicopters, fighter jets attack two military outposts in Mohmand

* NATO supply trucks, fuel tankers stopped

YAKKAGHUND: NATO helicopters and fighter jets attacked two military outposts in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as many as 24 troops and plunging US-Pakistan relations, already deeply frayed, further into crisis.
The attack is the worst single incident of its kind since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with Washington in the days immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets. “This is an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty,” said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. “We will not let any harm come to Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity.”

The Foreign Office said it would take up the matter “in the strongest terms” with NATO and the US. The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, General John R Allen, said he had offered his condolences to the family of any Pakistani soldiers who “may have been killed or injured” during an “incident” on the border. A spokesman for the force declined further comment on the nature of the “incident” and said an investigation was proceeding. The US embassy in Islamabad also offered condolences. “I regret the loss of life of any Pakistani servicemen, and pledge that the United States will work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident,” ambassador Cameron Munter said in a statement.

Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the outposts, about 2.5 km from the Afghan border. The Pakistani military said 24 troops were killed and 13 wounded. The attack took place around 2am in the Baizai area of Mohmand. “Pakistani troops effectively responded immediately in self-defence to NATO/ISAF’s aggression with all available weapons,” the Pakistani military statement said. About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outposts, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.

“The latest attack by NATO forces on our post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep,” said a senior Pakistani military officer, requesting anonymity. An Afghan border police official said joint Afghan-NATO troops near the outpost on Saturday morning had detained several militants. NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber hours after the raid, officials said. reuters

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

Pack your bags, Pakistan tells US

ISLAMABAD: Going a step ahead of merely condemning the outrageous NATO attack on a military outpost in Mohmand, the Defence Committee of Cabinet (DCC), on Sunday, decided to close with immediate effect the NATO/ISAF logistics supply lines through the country. The decision has been taken in accordance with the resolution of the joint session of parliament of May 14, 2011, which was held after the May 2 incident in which US forces violated the country’s airspace to hunt down Osama bin Laden. The DCC also decided to ask the US to vacate the Shamsi Airbase within 15 days. The committee termed the attack on Pakistan Army border posts totally unacceptable, which warrants an effective national response. The DCC also discussed the terms of engagement with the US and ISAF for war against terrorism and concurred on revisiting and undertaking a complete review of all programmes, activities and cooperative arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including diplomatic, political, military and intelligence.

It noted that NATO/ISAF attacks were also violative of their mandate, which was confined to Afghanistan. Pakistan had clearly conveyed to US/NATO/ISAF its red lines which constituted an integral element of Pakistan’s cooperation that was based on a partnership approach. The emergency meeting of the DCC was called by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani after his arrival in the federal capital cutting short his visit to Multan. The meeting was attended by federal ministers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Services Chiefs and members of the DCC. The DCC reiterated the resolve of the Pakistani people and armed forces to safeguard Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity at all costs. The prime minister will take parliament into confidence on the whole range of measures regarding matters relating to Pakistan’s future cooperation with US/NATO/ISAF, in the near future, the spokesman of PM House told the media. The DCC strongly condemned the attack by NATO/ISAF aircrafts on Pakistani border posts in the Mohmand Agency, which resulted in the loss of precious lives of officers and men of Pakistan Army and injuries to several others. The meeting expressed heartfelt sympathies and condolences to families of the soldiers who fought valiantly and embraced martyrdom, and also prayed for the early recovery of those who were injured. The committee noted that strong protests had been lodged with the United States and at NATO Headquarters in Brussels conveying in the strongest possible terms Pakistan’s condemnation of these attacks, which constituted a breach of sovereignty, were violative of international law and had gravely dented the fundamental basis of Pakistan’s cooperation with NATO/ISAF against militancy and terror.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

NATO admits it is responsible for casualties

KABUL: A spokesman for NATO-led troops in Afghanistan confirmed that NATO aircraft had been called in to support troops during an incident near the border with Pakistan, and its forces were “highly likely” responsible for deaths of Pakistani soldiers. “Close air support was called in, in the development of the tactical situation, and it is what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties,” said Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). “We are aware that there are Pakistani casualties, we don’t know numbers, we don’t know the magnitude of the incident,” he told Reuters. Pakistani officials earlier said NATO helicopters had attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan and killed up to 28 troops, prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan. reuters

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

[Neo]

Pakistan blocks NATO Afghan supplies after fatal air strike

Saturday, 26 November 2011

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities blocked the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan on Saturday after a cross-border air strike killed 25 Pakistani troops, local officials said.

Trucks and fuel tankers were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar, hours after the raid, officials said.

"We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post in Jamrud," Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official, told Reuters.

Pakistan blocks NATO Afghan supplies after fatal air strike

[Neo]

Pakistan orders US to vacate airbase within 15 days

Saturday, 26 November 2011

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Cabinet's Defence Committee on Saturday ordered the United States to vacate a controversial airbase within 15 days and closed NATO supply lines into Afghanistan in response to a deadly cross-border NATO air strike.

The order refers to Shamsi, the remote desert outpost in southwest Pakistan reportedly used as a hub for covert CIA drone strikes, which Pakistan previously told the United States to leave in June.

Pakistan orders US to vacate airbase within 15 days

[Neo]

US vows full probe into Pakistan border incident

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Saturday pledged a full investigation into a NATO attack that allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a joint statement offered their "deepest condolences" for the loss of life in the cross-border incident in Pakistan. Clinton and Panetta also said they "support fully NATO's intention to investigate immediately."

Secretary Clinton, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. John Allen, commander of the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, each called their Pakistani counterparts as well, the statement said.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter also met with Pakistani government officials in Islamabad.

"In their contacts, these US diplomatic and military leaders each stressed -- in addition to their sympathies and a commitment to review the circumstances of the incident -- the importance of the US-Pakistani partnership, which serves the mutual interests of our people," the statement said.

"All these leaders pledged to remain in close contact with their Pakistani counterparts going forward as we work through this challenging time," the statement concluded.

The incident was a major blow to American efforts to rebuild an already tattered alliance vital to winding down the 10-year-old Afghan war. It was the latest in a series of setbacks to the alliance, often caused by border incidents.

Islamabad called the bloodshed in one of its tribal areas a "grave infringement" of the country's sovereignty.

If confirmed, it would be the deadliest friendly fire incident by NATO against Pakistani troops since the Afghan war began a decade ago.

A NATO spokesman said it was likely that coalition airstrikes caused Pakistani casualties, but an investigation was being conducted to determine the details.

The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has severely deteriorated over the last year, especially following the covert American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Islamabad was outraged it wasn't told about the operation beforehand.

The border issue is a major source of tension between Islamabad and Washington, which is committed to withdrawing its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Much of the violence in Afghanistan is carried out by insurgents who are based just across the border in Pakistan. Coalition forces are not allowed to cross the frontier to attack the militants. However, the militants sometimes fire artillery and rockets across the line, reportedly from locations close to Pakistani army posts.

US vows full probe into Pakistan border incident - Yahoo! News

[Neo]

Tensions Flare Between U.S. and Pakistan After Strike

Naseer Ahmed/Reuters

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials said on Saturday that NATO aircraft had killed at least 25 soldiers in strikes against two military posts at the northwestern border with Afghanistan, and the country’s supreme army commander called them unprovoked acts of aggression in a new flash point between the United States and Pakistan.

The Pakistani government responded by ordering the Central Intelligence Agency to vacate the drone operations it runs from Shamsi Air Base, in western Pakistan, within 15 days. It also closed the two main NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, including the one at Torkham. NATO forces receive roughly 40 percent of their supplies through that crossing, which runs through the Khyber Pass, and Pakistan gave no estimate for how long the routes might be shut down.

A NATO spokesman said it was likely that allied airstrikes caused the Pakistani casualties, but said an investigation had been ordered to determine the cause.

In Washington, American officials were scrambling to assess what had happened amid preliminary reports that allied forces in Afghanistan engaged in a firefight along the border and called in airstrikes. Senior Obama administration officials were also weighing the implications on a relationship that took a sharp turn for the worse after a Navy Seal commando raid killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad in May, and that has deteriorated since then.

“Senior U.S. civilian and military officials have been in touch with their Pakistani counterparts from Islamabad, Kabul and Washington to express our condolences, our desire to work together to determine what took place and our commitment to the U.S.-Pakistan partnership, which advances our shared interests, including fighting terrorism in the region,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

In a sign that the White House was trying to keep the situation from growing worse, President Obama was updated regularly throughout the day by Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, Ms. Hayden said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of the NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, all talked to their Pakistani counterparts to offer condolences and to promise an investigation, administration officials said.

Mrs. Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta issued a joint statement late Saturday endorsing the investigation and offering their “deepest condolences” to Pakistan.

General Allen, in a separate statement, said, “This incident has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts.”

The strikes, which Pakistani officials said involved both helicopters and fighter jets, took place overnight at two military posts in Salala, a village in Pakistan’s Mohmand tribal region near the border with Kunar Province in Afghanistan. At least 40 soldiers were deployed at the posts, Pakistani military officials said, adding that NATO aircraft had penetrated roughly a mile and a half into Pakistan to make the strikes.

What remained unclear on Saturday, and what will be a main focus of NATO’s inquiry, was what exactly prompted the airstrikes and whether they were unprovoked or resulted from a communications mishap. A NATO spokesman, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, offered details suggesting that allied and Afghan troops operating near the border came under fire from unknown enemies and summoned coalition warplanes for help.

“In the early night hours of this morning, a force consisting of Afghan forces and coalition forces, in the eastern border area where the Durand Line is not always 100 percent clear, got involved in a firefight,” General Jacobson said, according to a transcript of his statements on NATO TV that the alliance provided American officials on Saturday. (The Durand Line is the colonial-era boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan.)

“Air force was called in into this activity,” he said, “and we have to look into this situation of what actually happened on the ground.”

[Neo]

General Jacobson told BBC television that it was “highly likely” that the airstrikes caused the Pakistani casualties. Several American and allied military, diplomatic and intelligence officials contacted on Saturday said it was unclear what threat, real or perceived, led to the airstrikes or why the allied aircraft fired on the Pakistani troops.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the Pakistan Army spokesman, told Pakistan’s Geo TV that the United States had been provided the grid locations of all Pakistani border outposts.

Such cross-border attacks have been at the heart of an increasingly hostile relationship between Pakistani and American officials. The United States has demanded that Pakistan do more to stop militants based in its territory, particularly from the feared Haqqani network and Al Qaeda, from crossing into Afghanistan to attack American forces. And United States forces in eastern Afghanistan say they have taken more mortar and rocket fire from positions at or near active Pakistani military posts in recent months, despite complaints to Pakistan about it.

Pakistani officials were enraged and embarrassed by the raid on Bin Laden’s compound and by repeated American drone strikes against militants in the northwestern tribal regions, which they consider breaches of the country’s sovereignty.

In a statement on Saturday, the Pakistani military said its top commander, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, had “directed that all necessary steps be undertaken for an effective response to this irresponsible act.”

General Kayani was severely criticized by Pakistani legislators, citizens and even his fellow commanders for allowing the American raid against Bin Laden, and he is under pressure in the wake of Saturday’s attack to stand up to the United States, American officials said.

President Asif Ali Zardari also strongly condemned the airstrikes, and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani cut short a vacation, returning to the capital and calling a meeting of his cabinet’s defense committee.

A former Pakistani diplomat, Maleeha Lodhi, who has served twice as ambassador to the United States and has close ties to the Pakistani military, said in an e-mail message: “The relationship is on a much more slippery slope now. This is as close as you can get to a rupture.”

On Saturday night, the defense committee meeting culminated in the demand to vacate the drone operations at Shamsi and the announcements that both supply routes had been closed. The base, about 200 miles southwest of Quetta in Baluchistan Province, is home to a secondary C.I.A. drone staging area.

After the Bin Laden raid, Pakistan publicly insisted that the C.I.A. shut down its missions there, but the agency balked and Pakistan quietly relented to scaled-back operations. The end of operations there would restrict the agency’s flexibility in using airstrikes against militants.

Pakistan also canceled several scheduled meetings this weekend with visiting American officers, sessions aimed at quietly rekindling training and other cooperation between the two militaries that was shelved after the Bin Laden raid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/wo...s.html?_r=1&hp

[vinod2070]

RIP.....

Highly unlikely that it was just an accident.