Pakistan cut supply
lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan and ordered a U.S. withdrawal
from a drone base after reports that helicopters of the U.S.-led
NATO force in
Afghanistan killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers in an attack on a
border post.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani “strongly condemned” the attack and ordered the Foreign
Ministry to address the incident “in the strongest terms” with the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S., his spokesman said
yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The Cabinet’s defense committee
held an emergency meeting and ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the
Shamsi Airbase within 15 days.
Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Kayani said the attack was a “blatant
and unacceptable act,” and demanded urgent action against those
responsible. NATO and the U.S. said the incident is being
investigated.
The U.S. and Pakistani governments have been trying to stabilize
their relationship after a year that included Pakistan’s detention
of a CIA contract employee for killing two Pakistanis, the U.S.
raid that that killed Osama bin Laden
in May, and public accusations by top U.S. officials that
Pakistan’s army is actively aiding militant groups that the U.S.
defines as terrorist.
“This incident puts General Kayani in a very difficult position
among his troops,” Talat Masood, a
retired army lieutenant general and security analyst in Islamabad,
said in an interview. “I don’t think both allies will go to the
tipping point, but it makes things even worse at a time when the
Obama administration was trying to restore a working relationship
with Pakistan after the Osama bin Laden incident.”
In the Nov. 25 attack, NATO helicopters and a fighter aircraft
fired at Pakistani border posts on the mountainous frontier between
Afghanistan’s Kunar
province and the Pakistani district of Mohmand, according to a
statement posted on the Pakistani army’s website. The attack is at
least the fourth on a Pakistan border facility by NATO forces in 15
months.
Pakistan’s defense committee, in a written statement from
Islamabad, said the attacks “constituted breach of sovereignty,
were violative of international law and had gravely dented the
fundamental basis of Pakistan’s cooperation” with U.S. and NATO
forces in Afghanistan.
“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,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin
Hayden said in an e-mail yesterday.
NATO oversees the
International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in
Afghanistan. The incident “has my highest personal attention and my
commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts,”
said the ISAF commander, Gen. John R. Allen, in an e-mail. “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.”
Cameron Munter, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, said “the
United States will
work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident,” according
to a statement from his embassy.
It’s “highly likely” that NATO aircraft conducted a raid, the
British Broadcasting Corp. said, citing an interview with spokesman
Brigadier-General Carsten Jacobson. NATO is investigating how the
incident happened and has sent condolences for it, Jacobson told
the BBC.
In September 2010, U.S. forces attacked areas in the border
districts of Kurram and North Waziristan, killing what Pakistan
said were several of members of its paramilitary Frontier Corps, an
army-led force that guards much of the border. Pakistan closed its
frontier for 10 days to the NATO-contracted trucks that haul food,
uniforms, construction material and other “non- lethal” supplies
from its port of Karachi into Afghanistan. Pakistan re-opened the
border after a joint investigation with U.S. officials and a NATO
apology for the attacks.
Afghan and Pakistani Taliban factions regularly attack U.S. and
other NATO forces from their bases in Pakistan and try to slip back
across the frontier for protection from NATO retaliation. ISAF has
at times asserted a right of “hot pursuit” of Taliban guerrillas
into Pakistani territory, while Pakistan has objected, calling such
actions a violation of its sovereignty.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border passes through rugged mountains
and desert terrain and is unmarked over most of its more than
2,600-kilometer (1,600-mile) length. The two countries dispute the
border’s location in many areas.
from bloomberg
