ISLAMABAD: Eleven people including nine security men were injured in the Angoor Ada area near Wana after US airstrike and artillery fire from across the border with Afghanistan. According to sources, US jets carried out bombardment in Angoor Adda area on Thursday night. Nine security officials and two civilians were injured whereas two vehicles had been destroyed in the airstrike.
Pakistan has lodged a “strong protest” with NATO, the army’s top spokesman said yesterday. The six mortars were fired overnight and fell close to a military post in the town of Angoor Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said.
Pakistani forces immediately returned fire, and “casualties were reported on the other side,” he said. “This was mortar fire from the Afghan side,” Abbas said. “Whether it was foreign forces or Afghan forces it’s yet to be determined.”
Asked if militants across the border could have been behind the firing, Abbas said he did not want to speculate. US military officials in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Details — such as the exact time of the incident — remained sketchy late yesterday. The clash comes about a month after another border incident, in which Pakistan said 11 of its soldiers died when US aircraft bombed their post in the Mohmand area. US officials have said coalition aircraft dropped bombs during a clash with militants. Though they expressed regret over the incident, they said the action was justified.
