- Jul 27, 2003
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This is totally unacceptable. Now they are conducting ground raids in our country. I believe we have a right to defend our sovereignty. These raids are uncalled for and should be met with full force. Why Pakistan's government has not taken a stricter policy against imperialism is a mystery. It won't be much longer before the people take to the streets forcing the government to renounce US's 'divine right' to control the world. We don't have much to lose. Our support for America has already lead us to the path of destruction from within; nothing that the US could do to us could be worse than us submitting to them and living like their slaves. Death to the American occupation and invasion.
Now you Americans have zero right to say anything to Russia. Your country can do anything it pleases in other sovereign states recognized by the UN and Russia can't? In fact Afghanistan and Pakistan are on the other side of the world are no real threat.
edit: 15/9/08
Also on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7396366.stm
Now you Americans have zero right to say anything to Russia. Your country can do anything it pleases in other sovereign states recognized by the UN and Russia can't? In fact Afghanistan and Pakistan are on the other side of the world are no real threat.
ISLAMABAD: A senior US military official has acknowledged that American forces conducted a raid inside Pakistan, in the first known foreign ground assault in the country against a suspected Taliban haven.
The Pakistan government has condemned an incursion that killed at least 20 people.
The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred Wednesday on Pakistani soil about one 1 milefrom the Afghan border. The official didn?t provide any other details.
The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target. But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al Qaida?s number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pakistani officials have confirmed they were lodging strong protests with the US government about Wednesday?s raid.
The Foreign Ministry called the strike ?a gross violation of Pakistan?s territory,? saying it could ?undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish.?
US military and civilian officials declined to respond to Pakistan?s complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target of any raid like that reported Wednesday would have to be extremely important to risk an almost assured ?big backlash? from Pakistan.
?You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of Pakistani cooperation,? the official said.
American commanders have been complaining publicly that Pakistan puts too little pressure on militant groups that are blamed for mounting violence in Afghanistan, stirring speculation that US forces might lash out across the frontier.
Circumstances surrounding Wednesday?s raid weren?t clear, but US rules of engagement allow American troops to chase militants across the border into the tribal region when they are attacked.
They may only go about six miles on the ground, under normal circumstances. US rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into Pakistan air space.
Pakistan?s army spokesman, Major Gen. Athar Abbas, said the attack was the first incursion onto Pakistani soil by troops from the foreign forces that ousted Afghanistan?s hard-line Taliban regime.
He said the attack would undermine Pakistan?s efforts to isolate militants and could threaten NATO?s major supply lines, which snake from Karachi through the tribal region into Afghanistan.
?We cannot afford a huge uprising at the level of tribe,? Abbas said. ?That would be completely counterproductive and doesn?t help the cause of fighting terrorism in the area.?
The Pakistani anger threatens to upset efforts by American commanders to draw Pakistan?s military into the US strategy of dealing harshly with the militants.
Washington has accused rogue elements in Pakistan?s main intelligence service of leaking sensitive information to militants.
American officials say destroying militant sanctuaries in Pakistani tribal regions is key to defeating Taliban-led militants in Afghanistan whose insurgency has strengthened every year since the fundamentalist militia was ousted for harbouring bin Laden.
Citing witness and intelligence reports, Abbas said troops flew in on at least one big CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, blasted their way into several houses and gunned down men they found there.
He said there was no evidence that any of those killed were insurgents or that the raiders abducted any militant leader, but he acknowledged Pakistan?s military had no firsthand account.
edit: 15/9/08
ISLAMABAD: Firing by Pakistani troops forced US military helicopters to turn back to Afghanistan after they crossed into Pakistani territory early on Monday, Pakistani security officials said.
The incident took place near Angoor Adda, a village in the tribal region of South Waziristan where US commandos in helicopters raided a suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban camp earlier this month.
?The US choppers came into Pakistan by just 100 to 150 metres at Angoor Adda. Even then our troops did not spare them, opened fire on them and they turned away,? said one security official.
The US and Pakistani military both denied that account, but Angoor Adda villagers and officials supported it.
Another security official said on Monday that US armoured vehicles were also seen moving on the Afghan side of the border, while US warplanes were seen overhead.
He said Pakistani soldiers sounded a bugle call and fired in the air, forcing the helicopters to return to Afghan territory.
CONFLICTING VERSIONS
The Pakistan army's chief military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, denied there had been any such incident. ?These reports are not correct,? he said.
?We have checked, there is an FC (Frontier Corps) post in the area. No helicopter came inside our side of the border, nor did our troops fire at any,? Abbas said.
Military spokesman Major Murad Khan confirmed that there had been shooting. But he said the American helicopters had not crossed into Pakistani airspace and Pakistani troops were not responsible for the firing.
?The US choppers were there at the border, but they did not violate our airspace,? Khan said. ?We confirm that there was a firing incident at the time when the helicopters were there, but our forces were not involved.?
A spokesman for the US military at Bagram Airbase, north of Kabul, said its forces had not reported any such incident. ?The unit in the area belongs to the (US-led) coalition. They are not reporting any such incident,? the US military spokesman said.
But the official denials were contradicted by Pakistani civilian officials and villagers in Angoor Adda.
One official told Reuters that ?the troops stationed at BP-27 post fired at the choppers and they turned away.?
A resident described the tension in the village through the night. ?We saw helicopters flying all over the area. We stayed awake the whole night after the incident,? he said.
Also on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7396366.stm
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's military has ordered its forces to open fire if U.S. troops launch another air or ground raid across the Afghan border, an army spokesman said Tuesday.
The orders, which come in response to a highly unusual September. 3 ground attack by U.S. commandos, are certain to heighten tension between Washington and a key ally against terrorism.
Pakistan's civilian leaders have protested the raid but say the dispute should be resolved through diplomatic channels.
However, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press that after U.S. helicopters ferried troops into a militant stronghold in the South Waziristan tribal region, the military told field commanders to prevent any similar raids.
"The orders are clear," Abbas said in an interview. "In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire."
U.S. military commanders accuse Islamabad of doing too little to prevent the Taliban and other militant groups from recruiting, training and resupplying in Pakistan's wild tribal belt.
Pakistan acknowledges the presence of al-Qaida fugitives and its difficulties in preventing militants from seeping through the mountainous border into Afghanistan.
However, it insists it is doing what it can and paying a heavy price, pointing to its deployment of more then 100,000 troops in its increasingly restive northwest and a wave of suicide bombings across the country.
PESHAWAR: A suspected US missile attack by drone aircraft on Wednesday hit a village in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan where a militant camp was located, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The missiles targeted Baghar, a village in the mountains 55km west of Wana, the main town in the region, they said.
Baghar is close to Angor Adda, the border village that was raided by US commandos on Sept. 3, and where another helicopter-borne raid was aborted on Monday after Pakistani troops and villagers opened fire.
A Pakistani military spokesman said there had been explosions in the area, but could not confirm the cause.