“This is the first time the United States has deliberately targeted co-operating Pakistani forces,” Jehangir Karamat, a former Pakistan army chief and ambassador to Washington, has been quoted as telling the New York Times, referring to a US air raid on a border post in the Mohmand Agency. Karamat said, “There has been no statement by the US that this was ‘friendly fire’ and that the intention was not to target Pakistani forces.”
The newspaper quoted two Pakistani officials from Islamabad as saying the Pakistani military was so angry over the American airstrikes last week that it was threatening to postpone or cancel an American programme to train a Pakistani paramilitary force in counterinsurgency tactics to be used for combating militants.
| No problem, we can find other uses for our personnel ... |
The report said some Pakistani officials were convinced that the Americans had deliberately fired on their military, killing 11 men from the very paramilitary force the Americans want to train, an accusation the Americans deny. There has been no word of regret or apology from the Pentagon.
The US military has said the airstrikes were carried out in self-defence against militants who had attacked American forces in Afghanistan and then fled into Pakistan. But the Pakistanis continue to dispute important parts of the American account.
Ending or delaying the programme, which is already under way, would deny the US what little leverage it has in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to combat a rising number of cross-border attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the paper said.
| It would also free up the area for the Afghan National Army ... |
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