Up to 25 Pak soldiers dead in NATO chopper attack
Associated Press, Updated: November 26, 2011 13:06 IST
Islamabad: Officials say the death toll from an alleged NATO helicopter attack on a Pakistani army checkpoint near the Afghan border has risen to 25 soldiers.
A Pakistani government official and a security official say the dead from Friday night's attack in the Mohmand tribal area include two officers. They said on Saturday that the attack also wounded seven soldiers.
The government official was based in Mohmand and the security official in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
NATO officials in Kabul said on Saturday they were aware of the incident, and would release more information after they were able to gather more facts about what happened.
The incident late Friday night came a little over a year after U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the border, whom the pilots mistook for insurgents they were pursuing. Pakistan responded by closing a key border crossing on a NATO supply route to Afghanistan for 10 days until the U.S. apologized.
In a statement sent to reporters, the Pakistan military blamed NATO for the attack in the Mohmand tribal area, saying the helicopters "carried out unprovoked and indiscriminate firing." It said casualties have been reported but details were still coming.
A government official and a security official said the helicopters killed 15 Pakistani soldiers, including two officers, and wounded seven others in two attacks on the checkpoint.
The government official was based in Mohmand and the security official in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
NATO officials in Kabul said Saturday morning that they were aware of the incident, and would release more information after they were able to gather more facts about what happened.
The governor of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province criticized the incident, calling it "an attack on Pakistani sovereignty."
The checkpoint that was attacked had been recently set up in Salala village by the army to stop Pakistani Taliban militants holed up in Afghanistan from crossing the border and staging attacks, said two government administrators in Mohmand, Maqsood Hasan and Hamid Khan.
The military has blamed Pakistani Taliban militants and their allies for killing dozens of security forces in such cross-border attacks since the summer. Pakistan has criticized Afghan and foreign forces for not doing enough to stop the attacks, which it says have originated from the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. The U.S. has largely pulled out of these provinces, leaving the militants in effective control of many areas along the border.
The Afghan-Pakistan border is a constant flashpoint, with both nations and the U.S. exchanging accusations of violations and of negligence in preventing cross-border attacks.
The U.S. and Afghan governments have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to prevent its territory from being used by Afghan Taliban militants and their allies to stage attacks against forces in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government blamed Pakistan for firing hundreds of rockets into eastern Afghanistan earlier this year that killed dozens of people. The Pakistan army has denied it intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but acknowledged that several rounds fired at militants conducting cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have largely focused their attacks on opposite sides of the border. The Afghan Taliban aims to topple the U.S.-allied government in Kabul, and the Pakistani Taliban has tried to do the same in Islamabad.
Frustration about cross-border attacks in both directions has contributed to deteriorating ties between the U.S. and Pakistan. The relationship took an especially hard hit from the covert U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town on May 2. The Pakistanis were outraged that they were not told about the operation beforehand, and now are angered even more than before by U.S. violations of the country's sovereignty.
The U.S. helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sept. 30 of last year took place south of Mohmand in the Kurram tribal area. A joint U.S.-Pakistan investigation found that Pakistani soldiers fired at the two U.S. helicopters prior to the attack, a move the investigation team said was likely meant to notify the aircraft of their presence after they passed into Pakistani airspace several times.
Pakistan moved swiftly after the attack to close the Torkham border crossing that connects northwestern Pakistan with Afghanistan through the famed Khyber Pass. Torkham is the main crossing in Pakistan, the country through which NATO ships about 30 percent of non-lethal supplies to its forces in Afghanistan.
Suspected militants took advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks carrying NATO supplies.
Senior U.S. diplomatic and military officials eventually apologized for the attack, saying it could have been prevented with greater coordination between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan responded by reopening the border crossing.
A Pakistani government official and a security official say the dead from Friday night's attack in the Mohmand tribal area include two officers. They said on Saturday that the attack also wounded seven soldiers.
The government official was based in Mohmand and the security official in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
NATO officials in Kabul said on Saturday they were aware of the incident, and would release more information after they were able to gather more facts about what happened.
The incident late Friday night came a little over a year after U.S. helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the border, whom the pilots mistook for insurgents they were pursuing. Pakistan responded by closing a key border crossing on a NATO supply route to Afghanistan for 10 days until the U.S. apologized.
In a statement sent to reporters, the Pakistan military blamed NATO for the attack in the Mohmand tribal area, saying the helicopters "carried out unprovoked and indiscriminate firing." It said casualties have been reported but details were still coming.
A government official and a security official said the helicopters killed 15 Pakistani soldiers, including two officers, and wounded seven others in two attacks on the checkpoint.
The government official was based in Mohmand and the security official in Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's northwest. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
NATO officials in Kabul said Saturday morning that they were aware of the incident, and would release more information after they were able to gather more facts about what happened.
The governor of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province criticized the incident, calling it "an attack on Pakistani sovereignty."
The checkpoint that was attacked had been recently set up in Salala village by the army to stop Pakistani Taliban militants holed up in Afghanistan from crossing the border and staging attacks, said two government administrators in Mohmand, Maqsood Hasan and Hamid Khan.
The military has blamed Pakistani Taliban militants and their allies for killing dozens of security forces in such cross-border attacks since the summer. Pakistan has criticized Afghan and foreign forces for not doing enough to stop the attacks, which it says have originated from the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan. The U.S. has largely pulled out of these provinces, leaving the militants in effective control of many areas along the border.
The Afghan-Pakistan border is a constant flashpoint, with both nations and the U.S. exchanging accusations of violations and of negligence in preventing cross-border attacks.
The U.S. and Afghan governments have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to prevent its territory from being used by Afghan Taliban militants and their allies to stage attacks against forces in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government blamed Pakistan for firing hundreds of rockets into eastern Afghanistan earlier this year that killed dozens of people. The Pakistan army has denied it intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but acknowledged that several rounds fired at militants conducting cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.
The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have largely focused their attacks on opposite sides of the border. The Afghan Taliban aims to topple the U.S.-allied government in Kabul, and the Pakistani Taliban has tried to do the same in Islamabad.
Frustration about cross-border attacks in both directions has contributed to deteriorating ties between the U.S. and Pakistan. The relationship took an especially hard hit from the covert U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town on May 2. The Pakistanis were outraged that they were not told about the operation beforehand, and now are angered even more than before by U.S. violations of the country's sovereignty.
The U.S. helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sept. 30 of last year took place south of Mohmand in the Kurram tribal area. A joint U.S.-Pakistan investigation found that Pakistani soldiers fired at the two U.S. helicopters prior to the attack, a move the investigation team said was likely meant to notify the aircraft of their presence after they passed into Pakistani airspace several times.
Pakistan moved swiftly after the attack to close the Torkham border crossing that connects northwestern Pakistan with Afghanistan through the famed Khyber Pass. Torkham is the main crossing in Pakistan, the country through which NATO ships about 30 percent of non-lethal supplies to its forces in Afghanistan.
Suspected militants took advantage of the impasse to launch attacks against stranded or rerouted trucks carrying NATO supplies.
Senior U.S. diplomatic and military officials eventually apologized for the attack, saying it could have been prevented with greater coordination between the U.S. and Pakistan. Pakistan responded by reopening the border crossing.
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