PESHAWAR, 20 September 2003— US warplanes yesterday dropped two bombs along a disputed part of the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with witnesses saying they landed in Pakistani territory.
The bombs exploded in mountains in the border district of Angoor Ada in the Pakistani tribal district of South Waziristan, 375 km (232 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad and 250 km (155 miles) from the main northwest frontier city of Peshawar.
The district faces Paktika province in southeast Afghanistan, one of the major battlegrounds of apparently resurgent Taleban who are staging hit-and-run attacks allegedly from the Pakistani side of the border.
“Two bombs dropped by US warplanes hit Pakistani territory on the Durand Line,” local resident Mohammad Ghaffar Wazir said. The 2,450 km (1,519 mile) border is also known as the Durand Line, named after the British colonial officer who drew it up with Afghan rulers in 1893. The frontier is disputed in several areas as Afghan officials use a different map to their Pakistani counterparts. The disputes erupted into skirmishes between Afghan tribal militia and Pakistani troops in the Mohmand tribal agency further north in July.
US bombs were dropped on a religious school last December in an area claimed by both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Another resident said yesterday’s bombs landed between the Afghan border village of Ziara Lita and the Pakistani village of Pash Khena.
A journalist based in the South Waziristan capital Wana, 35 km (28 miles) from the border, said the US bombers were pursuing Taleban fighters.
