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Pakistan
stops NATO supplies after deadly raid
By Shams Momand
YAKKAGHUND, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO helicopters
and fighter jets attacked two military outposts
in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing as
many as 28 troops and plunging U.S.-Pakistan
relations deeper into crisis.
Pakistan retaliated by shutting down NATO supply
routes into Afghanistan, used for sending in
nearly half of the alliance's land shipments. It
also said it would ask U.S. forces to quit an air
base used for CIA drone strikes on militants.
The attack is the worst incident of its kind
since Pakistan uneasily allied itself with
Washington following the September 11, 2001
attacks on the United States.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan confirmed that
NATO aircraft had probably killed Pakistani
soldiers in an area close to the Afghan-Pakistani
border.
"Close air support was called in, in the
development of the tactical situation, and it is
what highly likely caused the Pakistan casualties,"
said General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
He added he could not confirm the number of
casualties, but ISAF was investigating. "We
are aware that Pakistani soldiers perished. We
don't know the size, the magnitude," he said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said
the killings were "an attack on Pakistan's
sovereignty", adding: "We will not let
any harm come to Pakistan's sovereignty and
solidarity."
The Foreign Office said it would take up the
matter "in the strongest terms" with
NATO and the United States, while the Chief of
Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, said
steps would be taken to respond "to this
irresponsible act".
"A strong protest has been launched with
NATO/ISAF in which it has been demanded that
strong and urgent action be taken against those
responsible for this aggression."
Two military officials said up to 28 troops had
been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the
outposts, about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the
Afghan border. The Pakistani military said 24
troops were killed and 13 wounded.
EARLY MORNING ATTACK
The attack took place around 2 a.m. (2100 GMT) in
the Baizai area of Mohmand, where Pakistani
troops are fighting Taliban militants. Across the
border is Afghanistan's Kunar province, which has
seen years of heavy fighting.
"Pakistani troops effectively responded
immediately in self-defence to NATO/ISAF's
aggression with all available weapons," the
Pakistani military statement said.
The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan,
General John R. Allen, offered his condolences to
the family of Pakistani soldiers who "may
have been killed or injured".
Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts,
military sources said. Two officers were reported
among the dead. "They without any reasons
attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep,"
said a senior Pakistani officer, requesting
anonymity.
The border is often poorly marked, and Afghan and
Pakistani maps have differences of several
kilometres in some places, military officials
have said.
However Pakistani military spokesman Major-General
Athar Abbas said NATO had been given maps of the
area, with Pakistani military posts identified.
"When the other side is saying there is a
doubt about this, there is no doubt about it.
These posts have been marked and handed over to
the other side for marking on their maps and are
clearly inside Pakistani territory."
The incident occurred a day after Allen met
Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced
cooperation.
A senior military source told Reuters that after
the meeting that set out "to build
confidence and trust, these kind of attacks
should not have taken place".
BLOCKED SUPPLIES
Pakistan is a vital land route for nearly half of
NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in
Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. Land
shipments account for about two thirds of the
alliance's cargo shipments into Afghanistan.
Hours after the raid, NATO supply trucks and fuel
tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at
Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the
city of Peshawar, officials said.
The border crossing at Chaman in southwestern
Baluchistan province was also closed, Frontier
Corps officials said.
A meeting of the cabinet's defence committee
convened by Gilani "decided to close with
immediate effect NATO/ISAF logistics supply lines,"
according to a statement issued by Gilani's
office.
The committee decided to ask the United States to
vacate, within 15 days, the Shamsi Air Base, a
remote installation in Baluchistan used by U.S.
forces for drone strikes which has long been at
the centre of a dispute between Islamabad and
Washington.
The meeting also decided the government would
"revisit and undertake a complete review of
all programmes, activities and cooperative
arrangements with US/NATO/ISAF, including
diplomatic, political, military and intelligence".
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed
two Pakistani service personnel, led to the
closure of one of NATO's supply routes through
Pakistan for 10 days. NATO apologised for that
incident, which it said happened when NATO
gunships mistook warning shots by Pakistani
forces for a militant attack.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan
were strained by the killing of al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces in
Pakistan in May, which Pakistan called a flagrant
violation of sovereignty.
Pakistan's jailing of a CIA contractor and U.S.
accusations that Pakistan backed a militant
attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul have added to
the tensions.
"This will have a catastrophic effect on
Pakistan-U.S. relations. The public in Pakistan
are going to go berserk on this," said
Charles Heyman, senior defence analyst at British
military website Armedforces.co.uk.
Other analysts, including Rustam Shah Mohmand, a
former ambassador to Afghanistan, predicted
Pakistan would protest and close the supply lines
for some time, but that ultimately "things
will get back to normal".
(Additional reporting by Bushra Takseen, Saud
Mehsud, Jibran Ahmad and Saeed Achakzai in
Pakistan, Tim Castle in London, and Hamid Shalizi
and Christine Kearney in Afghanistan; Writing by
Augustine Anthony, Chris Allbritton and Emma
Graham-Harrison; Editing by Andrew Roche)
Copyright © 2011 Reuters
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