ISLAMABAD: Pakistani military and armed tribesmen yesterday foiled an attempt by US troops to enter Pakistani territory by firing shots at them, security officials said. Two US military helicopters crossed into Pakistan and tried to land near Angor Adda area of South Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border before dawn, a security official said.

“But our security forces and the tribesmen who were alert opened fire at them and forced them to flee back to Afghanistan,” added the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. No one was hurt in the incident, which an army spokesman denied took place.

“We completely deny the incident. There was no violation of our border from the Afghan side and therefore there was no question of any firing from our side,” Maj. Murad Khan insisted. However, he said firing was heard in the area but the army did not know where it had come from and where it was aimed.

A local resident, Sher Ali, said the tribesmen in the Angor Adda area had been on alert since Sept. 3 when US Special Forces dropped by US helicopters killed more than 20 civilians.

“People had information since Sunday night that the US forces were gathering across the border so thousands of armed tribesmen were guarding their area,” he added.

Tension has been brewing between Islamabad and Washington in recent weeks as US forces have increased missile attacks, mostly carried out by drone predators, at the suspected hideouts of militants who launch cross-border raids on international forces in Afghanistan.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told the US Congress last Wednesday that Washington was planning military operations to eliminate militant sanctuaries in Pakistan. In response, Pakistan’s military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has vowed to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country “at all cost.”

The US attacks have also fueled anger among the Pakistani public which is now demanding the new government in Islamabad abandon cooperation with the US in the international fight against terrorism. But there are no indications that the government, which is led by slain Benazir Bhutto’s widower President Asif Ali Zardari, intends to do that. Instead, it has vowed to resolve the issue through diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships killed at least 40 militants, including three women, linked to Al-Qaeda in a restive tribal area near the Afghan border, a security official said yesterday.

In another development, militants in northwestern Swat Valley freed 25 soldiers and police yesterday, more than a month after they were taken captive, a spokesman for the militant group, Tehreek-e-Taleban in Swat, said.

Muslim Khan told Reuters soldiers and police, part of a larger group of 39 taken hostage from checkpoints in the valley, were being freed as a gesture of good will during Ramadan.

“We decided that as it’s a holy month and we have respect for it, some of abducted security forces should be freed now in a first phase,” Khan said. The kidnappings came just before an offensive launched by the Pakistani Army in the Swat Valley and Bajaur. Militants took 39 paramilitary troops and policemen hostages from checkposts in the region in late July.

One soldier was later shot dead in revenge for the killing of a militant commander.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani yesterday said “during my two meetings with President George W. Bush an assurance was given to us that US will respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.” Gilani was addressing journalists at an iftar party at the residence of Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asseri.

Gilani said President Asif Ali Zardari has gone to the UK where he will take up the issue of US incursions with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and later at the United Nations, he will discuss the matter with Bush.

— With input from Azhar Masood