USA: Border raid was ’self defence
11/6/08
The US was acting in “self defence” when it launched an air raid that Pakistan says killed 11 of its troops, according to the Pentagon. US officials in Afghanistan have released a video they say shows they were attacking “anti-Afghan forces” on the border with Pakistan in the raid which Islamabad has condemned as an “unprovoked and cowardly” attack on its own troops. The Pakistani soldiers were killed on Tuesday at a border post in Gora Prai, in the volatile Mohmand province, a tribal region in Pakistan opposite Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Geoff Morrell, the US department of defence spokesperson, said at a news conference on Wednesday: “Every indication we have is that this was a legitimate strike against forces that had attacked members of the coalition.”
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/24D0D433-0A96-48E7-891D-C8B785119C69.htm
Alienating Allies
Editorial: 12/6/08
The slaying in a US airstrike on Tuesday of 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border is an outrage which demonstrates the bitter failings of the Bush White House foreign policy. Put bluntly, the Americans have still not learned to respect their allies and understand that those allies cannot fall into precise steps behind Washington’s lead in the war against terror. More than a thousand Pakistani troops have perished fighting Taleban militants and their local supporters in the North West Frontier region bordering Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf tried the big stick to smash Taleban support and failed. Now Pakistan’s new coalition government is taking the sensible approach of seeking to negotiate with the local tribes in order to end their armed confrontation with Islamabad and, by extension, their support for the Taleban.
See; http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=110824&d=12&m=6&y=2008
Tags: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA