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NATO chopper kills 3 Pakistani troops
A NATO helicopter attacked a Pakistani border post near Afghanistan on Thursday, killing three troops, security officials in Pakistan said.Later, government officials said they were ordered to stop trucks carrying supplies for international forces from entering Afghanistan at a major border crossing. NATO said it was investigating the allegations and whether they were linked to an operation against insurgents in a nearby Afghan province. The accusations and the fallout were likely to exacerbate tensions between Islamabad and Washington, which is struggling to beat back a resurgent Taliban movement in the nine-year-old Afghan war. Over the weekend, NATO choppers fired on targets in Pakistan, killing several alleged insurgents they had pursued over the border from Afghanistan. Islamabad protested the intrusion into its territory that has inflamed already pervasive anti-American sentiments among Pakistanis. On Thursday, two government officials told The Associated Press they were ordered to stop NATO supply trucks from crossing into Afghanistan at the Torkham border post, a major entryway for NATO materials at the edge of the Khyber tribal region. No reason was given for the blockage, but earlier this week Pakistan threatened to stop providing protection to NATO convoys if the military alliance's choppers attacked targets inside Pakistan again. Pakistani security officials differed on the exact location of the deadly airstrike, saying it took place either in Upper Kurram or Upper Orakzai. The remote, mountainous tribal regions neighbour each other. The border between them, as well as the one with Afghanistan, is poorly marked. Many of the border troops wear uniforms that resemble the traditional Pakistani dress of a long shirt and baggy trousers - which could make it hard to distinguish them from ordinary citizens or insurgents. The dead men were from a paramilitary force tasked with safeguarding the border, the Pakistani security officials said. Their bodies were taken to the region's largest town of Parachinar, one official said. Three troops also were wounded. The Pakistani officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation and because in some cases they were not authorised to release the information to the media. Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for intelligence and special operations at NATO headquarters in Kabul, said coalition forces observed early on Thursday what they believed were insurgents firing mortars at a coalition base in Dand Wa Patan district of Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan. "A coalition air weapons team called for fire support and engaged the insurgents," he said. "The air weapons team reported that it did not cross into Pakistani air space and believed the insurgents were located on the Afghan side of the border." Dorrian said NATO was reviewing the reports to see if the operation in Paktia was related to Pakistan's reports its forces were hit by NATO aircraft. Posted by: tipper 2010-09-30 |
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