European blood
11-26-2011, 12:02 PM
Pakistani officials have responded with fury to an apparent attack by Nato helicopters on an Afghan border checkpoint they say killed 26 soldiers.
The "unprovoked and indiscriminate" attack took place in Mohmand tribal region, the Pakistani military said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called it "outrageous" and convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
Nato's force in Afghanistan is investigating and has offered condolences to the affected families.
The alleged attack took place at the Salala checkpoint, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the Afghan border, at around 02:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
Two officers were among the dead, officials said, and 14 soldiers were reported wounded.
Prime Minister Gilani cut short a visit to his hometown to return to Islamabad, where he called an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
A foreign ministry statement said he was taking up the matter with Nato and the US "in the strongest terms".
Within hours of the alleged attack it was reported Pakistan had closed the border crossing for supplies bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan - a move which has been used in the past as a protest.
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There have been several incidents over the last three or four years in which Nato helicopters are said to have carried out attacks on Pakistani border checkpoints.
On those occasions, Nato has come back with the explanation that soldiers were mistaken for insurgents, saying there was insurgent activity in those areas at the time.
Pakistani officials at the moment are saying that there was no such activity on Saturday and that therefore this was not a case of mistaken identity.
So this is definitely going to damage relations.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says furious Pakistani officials insist there was no militant activity in the area at the time.
The incident looks set to deal a fresh blow to US-Pakistan relations, which had only just begun to recover following a unilateral US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15901363
1hZOM6sCU1c
The "unprovoked and indiscriminate" attack took place in Mohmand tribal region, the Pakistani military said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called it "outrageous" and convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
Nato's force in Afghanistan is investigating and has offered condolences to the affected families.
The alleged attack took place at the Salala checkpoint, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the Afghan border, at around 02:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
Two officers were among the dead, officials said, and 14 soldiers were reported wounded.
Prime Minister Gilani cut short a visit to his hometown to return to Islamabad, where he called an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
A foreign ministry statement said he was taking up the matter with Nato and the US "in the strongest terms".
Within hours of the alleged attack it was reported Pakistan had closed the border crossing for supplies bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan - a move which has been used in the past as a protest.
Continue reading the main story
There have been several incidents over the last three or four years in which Nato helicopters are said to have carried out attacks on Pakistani border checkpoints.
On those occasions, Nato has come back with the explanation that soldiers were mistaken for insurgents, saying there was insurgent activity in those areas at the time.
Pakistani officials at the moment are saying that there was no such activity on Saturday and that therefore this was not a case of mistaken identity.
So this is definitely going to damage relations.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says furious Pakistani officials insist there was no militant activity in the area at the time.
The incident looks set to deal a fresh blow to US-Pakistan relations, which had only just begun to recover following a unilateral US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15901363
1hZOM6sCU1c