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Vol. 72/No. 26      June 30, 2008

 
U.S. air strike kills 11 Pakistani soldiers
 
BY SAM MANUEL  
WASHINGTON—A U.S. air strike on a check point along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan killed 11 Pakistani soldiers June 10. Pakistan government and military officials sharply condemned the attack.

The U.S. military has been stepping up operations inside Pakistan against militias allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistan’s new government has signed peace agreements with several of the militia groups in tribal regions where the Pakistani army has suffered substantial casualties. U.S. and NATO officials have criticized the pacts saying they will lead to increased attacks by al-Qaeda and Taliban-backed groups against U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry called the attack an unprovoked and gross violation of its border, reported Reuters. “The senseless use of air power against a Pakistani border post by coalition forces is totally unacceptable,” the ministry said.

An unnamed Pakistan army spokesman called the attack “unprovoked and cowardly,” Reuters said, and charged that it would hurt Pakistan’s support for the global “war on terror.” Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Pakistan does not view the air strike as an intentional, hostile act and that it would not change Pakistan’s relations with the U.S. government.

This is the second U.S. air strike on Pakistan’s border in less than a month. According to press reports U.S. warplanes and drones routinely violate Pakistani airspace. As many as 14 people were killed May 16 by missiles fired from Predator drones in the village of Damadola. U.S. and Pakistani officials said that a “high value” target was among those killed.

For years Washington relied on the military-backed regime of Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Musharraf was a protector of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan until Washington overthrew the Taliban-led regime after Sept. 11, 2001. Musharraf then became an unstable but staunch U.S. ally.

Elections this past February in Pakistan resulted in a new parliamentary majority headed by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. Bhutto was assassinated in December while campaigning in Rawalpindi. The new government has led peace talks with Islamist militias.  
 
 
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