Pakistan Closes Afghan Border After NATO kills 24 Pakistani Troops

[C. Flower]

Pakistan is reviewing its relationship with the US today, after the burials of 24 Pakistani soldiers killed by NATO bombing. The US has been asked to vacate the shamsi airbase.

Big protests in Karachi and elsewhere.

It is hard to understand what is happening, unless the US wants open war with Pakistan. Informed views requested.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/26/pakis...n-15-days.html

Pakistan sealed its Afghan border to Nato, shutting down a lifeline for the estimated 130,000 US-led foreign troops fighting the Taliban, and called on the United States to leave a secretive air base (Shamsi) reportedly used by CIA drones.

Islamabad protested to Nato and the United States in the strongest terms — summoning US ambassador Cameron Munter, branding the strike a violation of international law and warning that there could be serious repercussions.

The US-led Nato force in Afghanistan admitted it was “highly likely” that the force’s aircraft caused the deaths before dawn on Saturday, inflaming US-Pakistani relations still reeling from the May killing of Osama bin Laden.

[Holly]

It's called "friendly fire". The Americans do it all the time.

[C. Flower]

It's called "friendly fire". The Americans do it all the time.

Friendly fire is something that happens in a war zone, not across the border into a neighbouring state with which one is not at war.

[Holly]

Friendly fire is something that happens in a war zone, not across the border into a neighbouring state with which one is not at war.

LOL You cannot be serious. That part of Pakistan is indistinguishable from Afghanistan; the Taliban run the place which just about defines the term "war zone".

[Count Bobulescu]

This is the second and by far the most serious such incident in a little over a week. Last week two Pakistani soldiers were killed by NATO at a Pakistani army checkpoint. There is speculation in the US that NATO in both cases came under fire from these checkpoints because Taliban forces are openly occupying some checkpoints with the Pakistani army. Last year Pakistan shut down the supply routes for ten days. Don't think the US is looking to go to war with Pakistan or anyone else at the moment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z3

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/wo...s.html?_r=1&hp

What remained unclear on Saturday, and what will be a main focus of NATO’s inquiry, was what exactly prompted the airstrikes and whether they were unprovoked or resulted from a communications mishap. A NATO spokesman, Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, offered details suggesting that allied and Afghan troops operating near the border came under fire from unknown enemies and summoned coalition warplanes for help.

“In the early night hours of this morning, a force consisting of Afghan forces and coalition forces, in the eastern border area where the Durand Line is not always 100 percent clear, got involved in a firefight,” General Jacobson said, according to a transcript of his statements on NATO TV that the alliance provided American officials on Saturday. (The Durand Line is the colonial-era boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan.)

“Air force was called in into this activity,” he said, “and we have to look into this situation of what actually happened on the ground.”

[Count Bobulescu]

The Afghans appear to be disputing the Pakistani version, and NATO/US is staying silent for now.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

KABUL — The mission that resulted in the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers on Saturday began when U.S. Special Operations troops and Afghan army commandos launched a nighttime raid against suspected Taliban insurgents along the border in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province, according to Afghan security officials.

After the coalition unit came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border, the troops responded by calling in an airstrike, which resulted in the Pakistani casualties, the officials said. “They did come under fire from across the border first, before reacting,” said a senior Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

That account of the mission is disputed by Pakistani authorities, who say the U.S. launched an unprovoked attack on two of their border posts, a prolonged assault that continued for nearly two hours including after Pakistani officials asked coalition forces to stop. U.S. military spokesmen would not discuss the issue and said they are waiting for the results of an investigation into the incident before drawing any conclusions.

[Count Bobulescu]

Pakistan likely to be a “Failed State” with 200 Nukes within five years. Ouch!

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world...an2_11-28.html

[Count Bobulescu]

US admits it made mistake when it killed Pakistani troops.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

The U.S. military acknowledged Thursday that commanders in Afghanistan made serious mistakes during a cross-border raid last month in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.
A report about the Nov. 25 incident said investigators found that “inadequate coordination by U.S. and Pakistani military officers,” as well as erroneous map information provided by NATO to Pakistani authorities, were to blame for the battlefield blunder, which has added enormous strain to the already fraught relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z2

The rumors about a coup have set off alarms in Washington and Kabul, where many officials accuse the Pakistani military of playing a spoiler role in America’s war with the Taliban. Pakistani military chiefs wield more power than civilian leaders and have a long history of staging coups.
The ouster of the current government would likely destabilize the nuclear-armed nation, potentially generating a flurry of new challenges to U.S. commanders in Afghanistan as they struggle to wind down the war.

[Count Bobulescu]

Beeb is reporting that Pakistani military has rejected US admission of fault, because while it offers “deep and sincere regrets” it does not offer an apology. US position apparently is that technical/operational mix-up arose out of mutual US/Pakistani suspicion. Oops! Can we retract our admission of fault?