Pakistan Condemns "Cowardly" U.S. Attack; 11 Dead

Pakistan condemns "cowardly" U.S. attack; 11 dead

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By Kamran Haider
6/11/2008

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Wednesday an "unprovoked and cowardly" air strike by U.S. forces had killed 11 Pakistani soldiers on its border with Afghanistan and undermined the basis of security cooperation.

The soldiers were killed at a border post in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province, late on Tuesday as U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan battled militants attacking from Pakistan, a Pakistani security official said.

The incident came as frustration is rising in Kabul and among Western forces in Afghanistan over Pakistani efforts to negotiate pacts to end militant violence on its side of the border. NATO says such deals lead to more violence in Afghanistan.

In its strongest criticism of the U.S. military since joining the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, the Pakistani military condemned the killing of the 11 paramilitary soldiers, including an officer. If confirmed, it would be the most Pakistani soldiers ever killed in an attack by U.S. forces.

The attack "hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in the war against terror", the military said.

"Such acts of aggression do not serve the common cause of fighting terrorism," it said in a statement.

Earlier, a Pakistani security official said the soldiers were killed after militants had attacked into Afghanistan.

"The militants launched a cross-border attack into Afghanistan ... our soldiers were killed in a counter-offensive by forces in Afghanistan," said the official, who declined to be identified.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan referred queries to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, which had no comment.

SUSPICION
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said they attacked U.S. and Afghan forces as they were setting up a position on the Pakistan side of the border, and eight Taliban were killed and nine wounded in subsequent U.S. bombing.

The militant spokesman, Maulvi Omar, said by telephone he had heard that U.S. aircraft also bombed a nearby Pakistani post, while the Taliban had captured seven Afghan troops and shot down a helicopter.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants took refuge on the Pakistani side of the border after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.

Mohmand has not been a hotbed of support for al Qaeda and the Taliban but militants, who have been extending their influence in northwest Pakistan, are known to operate there.

A new Pakistani government has been negotiating with elders of ethnic Pashtun tribes to get them to press the militants to give up a campaign of violence in Pakistan in which hundreds of people have been killed over the past year.

The government, which came to power after supporters of staunch U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf were defeated in a February election, is led by the party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, killed in a suicide attack in December.

Afghanistan and its Western allies say peace pacts in Pakistan's border regions enable militants to regroup and step up cross-border attacks from Pakistani sanctuaries.

Pakistan supported the Taliban until the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when it threw its support behind the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.

Despite that, Pakistan has been unable to shake off suspicion elements within its security forces help the Taliban, or at least turn a blind eye as the militants organize their insurgency from Pakistan.

Pakistan denies the accusations, saying it has lost about 1,000 soldiers battling militants in border mountains that have never come under the control of any government.