American attack aftermath: Pakistan declares attack a 'plot'

[Bill Longley]

Pakistan Closes Afghan Border Crossing To NATO Claiming They Attacked Army Checkpoint | Fox News

A Pakistani customs official and a terminal operator say Pakistan has closed a key Afghan border crossing to NATO supplies after the U.S.-led coalition's helicopters allegedly attacked an army checkpoint, killing 25 soldiers.

The customs official told The Associated Press by phone Saturday that he received verbal orders to stop all NATO supplies from moving across the border through the Torkham crossing.

The operator of the border terminal where NATO supply trucks park before getting clearance to cross said the vehicles had been stopped since Saturday morning.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.

The Pakistan military has blamed NATO helicopters for the attack on the checkpoint late Friday night. NATO is investigating.

A Pakistani government official and a security official say the dead from Friday night's attack in the Mohmand tribal area include two officers. State TV reported the death toll Saturday.

The incident late Friday night came a little over a year after U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the border, whom the pilots mistook for insurgents they were pursuing. Pakistan responded by closing the border to NATO supplies for 10 days until the U.S. apologized.

In a statement sent to reporters, the Pakistan military blamed NATO for the attack in the Mohmand tribal area.

"ISAF/NATO helicopters carried out unprovoked and indiscriminate firing on a Pakistani checkpost in Mohmand agency ... Casualties have been reported," a military spokesman said.

NATO officials in Kabul said Saturday morning that they were aware of the incident, and would release more information after they were able to gather more facts about what happened.

The checkpoint that was attacked had been recently set up in Salala village by the Pakistan army to stop Taliban militants holed up in Afghanistan from crossing the border and staging attacks, said two government administrators in Mohmand, Maqsood Hasan and Hamid Khan.

The Pakistan 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 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.

Washington considers the tribal belt a hotbed of al Qaeda, where Taliban and other militants plot attacks on American troops -- including those in the US-led international force based in Afghanistan.

Newscore and Reuters contributed to this report.

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[fatman17]

Pakistan blocks NATO Afghan supplies after fatal air strike




YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO helicopters attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 25 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

The attack comes as relations between the United States and Pakistan, its ally in the war on terror, are already badly strained following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in a secret raid on the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad in May.

Pakistan called that raid a flagrant violation of its sovereignty.

A Pakistani military spokesman confirmed Saturday's pre-dawn cross-border attack in the tribal region of Mohmand and said casualties had been reported, but gave no details.

"NATO helicopters carried out an unprovoked and indiscriminate firing on a Pakistani check post in Mohmand agency, casualties have been reported and details are awaited," the spokesman told Reuters.

Two military officials said that up to 25 Pakistani troops had been killed and 14 wounded in the attack on the Salala check post, about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the Afghan border.

"We have heard about heavy casualties but can't provide you with the exact number of casualties of our troops as the post is far away, located in the mountains and is difficult to reach at the moment," a military spokesman in Peshawar said.

The attack took place around 2 a.m. (2100 GMT) in the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban militants.

Another senior Pakistani military officer said efforts were under way to bring the bodies of the slain soldiers to Ghalanai, the headquarters of Mohmand tribal region.

"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," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outpost, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.

NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan 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.

Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.

Pakistan is a vital land route for 49 percent of NATO's supplies to its troops in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said the coalition there was aware of "an incident" and was gathering more information.

The incident occurred a day after U.S. General John Allen met Pakistani Army Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced cooperation.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is often poorly marked, and differs between maps by up to five miles in some places.

A similar incident on Sept 30, 2009, which killed two Pakistani troops, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.

NATO apologized for that incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning shots by the Pakistani forces for a militant attack.

The attack is expected to further worsen U.S.-Pakistan relations, already at one of their lowest points in history, following a tumultuous year that saw the bin Laden raid, the jailing of a CIA contractor, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

An increase in U.S. drone strikes on militants in the last few years has also irritated Islamabad, which says the campaign kills more Pakistani civilians in the border area than activists. Washington disputes that, but declines to discuss the drone campaign in detail.

"This is an attack on Pakistan's territorial sovereignty," said Masood Kasur, the governor of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

"Such cross-border attacks cannot be tolerated any more. The government will take up this matter at the highest level and it will be investigated."

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud and Jibran Ahmad; Writing by Augustine Anthony and Chris Allbritton; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[Bill Longley]

In era of GPS and GPRS its impossible that NATO did not know the position of Our Post. I think govt should give orders to shoot down hostile heli's if they cross limits. Shoot down 1 or two heli's they will behave. but with this Passive approch only result of hue and cry will be an apology over loss of Life by NATO and case close

 

[PakShaheen79]

Chill out man ... Aik do din gherat ka bukhar charhay ga aur phir hum purani tankhawa par "kam" jari karain gay

I feel really sorry for the men who lost their lives today. But there is nothing more which Pakistan can do right now in presence of current leadership (both military and political)... as said by Iqbal

Hai Jurme Zaifi Ki Saza Marg e Mafajaat!

(Death of your interests is the punishment of your weakness)

 

[Jango]

This is F******* ridiculous, now when you have a GPS and all those fancy gadgets the US helis have, it is not possible to have been mistaken. Especially with NVG. Had it been some artillery shelling, would have been understandable, but this is outrageous.

This is an all out act of war.

Blocking the supply line is the least we could do.

 

[sohailbarki]

I am just wondering why the hell our troops on afghan border do not have man pads...

so our army is like basically armed taliban....shame....on our military think tank

 

[Filmmaker]

good decision...hope that they remain firm on their stand and not bow down to any American pressure. Time for NATO to pay back

 

[Jango]

Now this blockade should not be opened anytime soon.

 

[kawaraj]

Seal the whole border, let them going through Iran.

Maybe its Time to ally with Iran and cut the rope.

 

[regular]

I am just wondering why the hell our troops on afghan border do not have man pads...

so our army is like basically armed taliban....shame....on our military think tank

I guess our Army is like 16th century old Army....all the money is going into the swiss bank accounts and nothing is spend for equipping our poor soldiers...shame on the top elites Army or Civil.....all are nothing but traitors to the nation....

 

[Jango]

I guess our Army is like 16th century old Army....all the money is going into the swiss bank accounts and nothing is spend for equipping our poor soldiers...shame on the top elites Army or Civil.....all are nothing but traitors to the nation....

Get your facts right people, they do have them, and also Ack Ack, but they would not have been expecting helis to come in. They are there to fight the TTP, not NATO.

 

[Developereo]

Seal the supply routes permanently. Not 1 week, not 1 month, but PERMANENTLY.

The other supply routes are fraught with their own 'costs'. The only way America can continue its Afghan operations will be by giving massive concessions to Russia and Medvedev will demand his pound of flesh. The Russians will play hardball -- especially with the missile shield drama in Eastern Europe -- and the Chinese are more than eager to pay back for America's Pacific shenanigans.

Let this incident go down in history as the beginning of the chain that resulted in NATO's ignominious retreat from Afghanistan. That will be the best revenge for the deaths of these martyrs.

 

[regular]

This is F******* ridiculous, now when you have a GPS and all those fancy gadgets the US helis have, it is not possible to have been mistaken. Especially with NVG. Had it been some artillery shelling, would have been understandable, but this is outrageous.

This is an all out act of war.

Blocking the supply line is the least we could do.

Sir! we have traitors sitting within our top Govt offices and within the Top Army elites...the poor soldiers have nothing in hand to do about this situation. The nation is getting back stabbed by the evil around and among us.....very desperate situation lies ahead now. But Allah SBWT is great he is going to bring out some unforeseeable solution for our pains. Thats the only hope/faith keeping us alive Insha-Allah.....

 

[53fd]

49% of NATO's supplies come from Pakistan. Time to close the supply routes permanently.

 

[Jango]

Seal the supply routes permanently. Not 1 week, not 1 month, but PERMANENTLY.

The other supply routes are fraught with their own 'costs'. The only way America can continue its Afghan operations will be by giving massive concessions to Russia and Medvedev will demand his pound of flesh. The Russians will play hardball -- especially with the missile shield drama in Eastern Europe -- and the Chinese are more than eager to pay back for America's Pacific shenanigans.

Let this incident go down in history as the beginning of the chain that resulted in NATO's ignominious retreat from Afghanistan. That will be the best revenge for the deaths of these martyrs.

Definitely. 30+ martyred is too much, by relentless Helicopter pounding. There is absolutely no excuse about this, about why the NATO pilots made the mistake of crossing the border and then failing to distinguish between uniformed soldiers and rag tag talibs, with all the GPS aids, and NVG devices.

Supply routes should be blocked, and then a strong case be brought in the UN.