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Pakistani, US troops exchange fire
PAKISTANI and US troops exchanged fire along the Pakistani-Afghan border overnight after two US military helicopters came under fire, a US military spokesman said.Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said Pakistani soldiers at a border checkpoint were seen firing on two US OH-58 Kiowa helicopters covering a patrol of Afghan and US troops about 2km inside Afghanistan. "The ground forces then fired into the hillside nearby that checkpoint, gained their attention, which worked,'' Rear Admiral Smith said. "Unfortunately, though, the Pak unit decided to shoot down a hillside at our ground forces. Our ground forces returned fire.'' Rear Admiral Smith, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said no one on either side was hit in the exchange, which occurred in late afternoon, and the helicopters never fired any rounds. "The whole thing lasted about five minutes,'' he said. "It all ended quickly.'' The Pakistani military said its troops had fired warning shots at two helicopters which were "well within Pakistani territory". But Rear Admiral Smith and Pentagon officials said the helicopters were in Afghan air space. The ground unit that spotted the Pakistanis firing at the helicopters consisted of a small US training team embedded with an Afghan border police unit, he said. But at the United Nations in New York today, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan's military was firing "flares" to warn the helicopters about the location of the border with Afghanistan. Mr Zardari, who was beginning a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, contradicted the accounts that the US helicopters had come under small arms fire inside Afghan territory. "You mean the flares," he replied when asked about the US accounts, adding the flares were "to make sure that they know that they have crossed the border line". Sometimes the border is so mixed that they don't realise they have crossed the border," said Mr Zardari, seated opposite Dr Rice in a luxury hotel. As reporters filed out of the room, Dr Rice told Mr Zardari: "The border is very, very unclear, I know." Later, Mr Zardari told the UN General Assembly that Pakistan would not allow its sovereignty to be violated by its allies. "Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said. Posted by: tipper 2008-09-25 |
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