ISLAMABAD, 12 June 2008 — Pakistan said yesterday an “unprovoked and cowardly” airstrike by US-led forces had killed 13 Pakistani soldiers at a border post in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan’s Kunar province, and undermined the basis of security cooperation.
The soldiers were killed late on Tuesday as US coalition forces in Afghanistan battled militants attacking from Pakistan, a Pakistani security official said.
However, there were conflicting reports on how the soldiers were killed. Some residents of the Mohmand region claimed “a forward post came under attack by surface-to-surface missiles” but some held contradicting views. “The post was bombed by unmanned aircraft that flew from Afghanistan,” they maintained.
The US military said in a statement issued yesterday that it had coordinated the artillery and airstrike with Pakistan, but was investigating further.
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 US military since joining the US-led campaign against terrorism, the Pakistani military condemned the killing of the 13 paramilitary soldiers, including an officer.
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.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also condemned the attack. “We will take a stand for sovereignty, integrity and self-respect and we will not allow our soil (to be attacked),” he told Parliament.
Earlier, a Pakistani security official said the soldiers were killed after militants had launched an attack 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.
In response, the US military said the counter-offensive had been aimed at anti-Afghan militants and Pakistan had been told in advance — part of an operation “had been previously coordinated with Pakistan.” “Shortly after the attack began, coalition forces informed the Pakistan Army that they were being engaged by anti-Afghan forces in a wooded area near the Gorparai checkpoint,” the statement said. “At that same time, an unmanned aerial system also identified anti-Afghan forces firing at coalition forces. In self-defense, coalition forces fired artillery rounds at the militants.”
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the incident took place in a border area that has long been a shared US-Pakistani concern.
“Because we know that the border region is used as a seam by the enemy, we have any number of coordination measures and mechanisms in place for working with the Pakistani military because we are sensitive to that,” he told reporters.
— With input from agencies
